Master of Puppets
by USA Tiger
Summary: During the summer before his third year at school, Harry comes across a set of very special puppets that once belonged to Puppet Master Andre Toulon. Harry now finds himself the newest Puppet Master and together with his new little friends, Harry and the Puppets are ready to take on anything.
1. Chapter 1

Master of Puppets

Author: USA Tiger

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J. K. Rowling and Puppet Master is the property of Full Moon Entertainment. I own neither.

Author Note: This is a little side project I'm working on and off of. It's not a crossover I've seen as of yet and thought it could be fun. I'm mostly amused by the idea of Harry having a mini army of killer puppets and Voldie and his Death Eaters getting their butts handed to them by the puppets. This isn't going to be one of my main series, I'm not even sure how well this is going to be received by you the readers (hopefully well but I don't think Puppet Master is as well-known as other horror series like Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th) but if it is I plan on this being a side project to work on when I get writer's block or something.

Hopefully everyone will enjoy this odd little crossover.

This story is now beta-ed by Tsuyu-the-Hanyou.

Timeline wise, this story falls around the start of the third Harry Potter book and a few years after Puppet Master Legacy. Puppets vs. Demonic Toys should be disregarded as that movie isn't considered canon to the Puppet Master timeline.

Warnings: Only thing I can think of right now, since it's a crossover with a horror series, is that this will be a bit of a violent fic. First chapters would be pretty PG-13 but later chapters would be rated higher maybe.

(update) A nice reviewer pointed out I spelled diary as dairy. That's the problem with spell check, since it was a real word, it didn't show that it was wrong. Anyway, the word throughout the fic has been fixed. (All other issues have been taken out by Beta)

Chapter 1

Harry Potter was always the curious sort, the urge had been stifled over the years of growing up with his abusive family, but when he was away from them, his cat-like curiosity came out. This, of course, was evident during his first two years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as shown by trying to find out what was on the 3rd floor corridor or just what the strange diary found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was. Harry was just lucky that neither of these events led to his death, though it had come close, but it didn't stop him from being curious about everything. He guessed it could be because he had to keep his head down, not to ask questions while living with his Aunt and Uncle, as that behaviour was frowned upon by the Dursleys.

So where did that curiosity lead to now? Exploring the shops of Diagon Alley at his leisure. It was the summer before Harry's 3rd year at Hogwarts, he had been here a week since he accidently blew up his Aunt Marge, not his real aunt as she was his uncle-in-law's sister, after she insulted his parents over and over again. He had run away from the house that night and accidently summoned the magical Knight Bus after getting the crap scared out of him by a large dog. The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, had met Harry at the magical pub, the Leaky Cauldron, to assure the youth that he was not in trouble for blowing up 'Large Marge' and he was going to be allowed to stay at the Cauldron until it was time for him to return to Hogwarts.

This allowed Harry to fully explore the alley he was first introduced to when Hagrid, the Grounds Keeper at Hogwarts, had brought him here when he had turned 11 to shop for his first year at school. So far he had found several different types of stores that he didn't even know were there before which led him to the one he was in front of now, peering through the slightly dusty window. It looked like some sort of second hand junk shop, Harry could see several different items inside that he had never seen before. It was enough to draw the curious boy inside to explore the new wonder.

Inside the junk shop it was cool, unlike the heat of summer outside. Harry walked around looking at the different items on display, passing a shelf with a doll like item dressed in black. As he passed the doll, it turned its head slightly to watch the boy. Harry stopped, feeling something watching him and quickly turned around.

"Hello?" He called softly as he looked for what was watching him. After a few minutes, Harry slowly relaxed, there didn't seem to be anyone there. Sighing in relief, Harry glanced at the shelf beside him then quickly looked back when he noticed the doll. Tilting his head to the side, Harry reached over and gently picked it up. It was a little over a foot and a half tall, dressed in a black trench coat and wide brim hat. The doll had a gaunt white face and long white hair, and as Harry lifted the figure's arms, he saw that instead of hands, it had a hook on its left arm and a knife blade on its right.

"See anything you like, young man?" A man's voice asked from behind Harry. Harry yelped and quickly turned around, holding the doll close to his chest.

"I'm sorry! I wasn't going to damage him or anything!" Harry quickly said. Behind Harry was an older wizard with thick white hair and a small neatly trimmed goatee.

"That is alright, mein freund." The man said with a German accent. "I see you found one of Herr Toulon's wondrous puppets."

"He's a puppet?" Harry asked as he looked down at the doll-like puppet in his hands. "He doesn't have any strings."

"Ja." The shop owner agreed with a smile as he held out a hand. Harry gently handed the puppet over to the man who looked down at the puppet fondly. "This puppet, Herr Potter, was one of the marvelous Andre Toulon's string-less puppets."

Harry flushed slightly as the man called him 'Herr Potter', sometimes he forgot that everyone here knew who he was.

"Who was Andre Toulon?" Harry asked. The man smiled, looking down at the puppet again then handing it back to Harry.

"Andre Toulon was a world famous puppet master, he used to entertain children all over Europe during World War 2, that is until the Nazi's attacked him and killed his poor wife." The man shook his head slightly. "He fled to the Americans afterwards. I remembered seeing one of his puppet shows when I was a small child, still living in Germany. I am, what you say, a 'Muggleborn' and it was the first time I had ever seen magic."

"Was Mr. Toulon a wizard?" Harry asked.

"I do not know, mein freund." The elderly wizard said with a shake of his head. "I have never found anything about a wizard with the name of Toulon, if he was he did not let anyone know. But he must have been, for what he did with his puppets was pure magic."

"Wow." Harry said as he looked at the puppet in his arms again. At first glance you would think it was terrifying looking, what with the puppet all dressed in black with the bone white face and not to mention the hook and knife blade for hands. But Harry couldn't help but feel drawn to it; appearance was only skin deep after all.

"Would you like to see the rest of Herr Toulon's puppets?" The shop owner offered.

"Really?" Harry asked as he looked up shyly.

"Ja, come this way." The wizard said with a smile, waving his hand for Harry to follow him. Harry was lead to the back of the store where an old green trunk stood. The wizard opened the latches on the side and opened the trunk for Harry to see.

"Wow." Harry said as he knelt down to get a better look. Inside were five other puppets, one had a large drill on its head, the next was large-bodied with a small cone shaped head. In a small curtained off area, stood a puppet dressed like a jester and next to him was a girl puppet with long black hair. Lastly, there was also a puppet with six arms, dressed like an American cowboy. (1)

"They are wonderful, ja?" The wizard asked with a smile, watching as Harry gently picked up the jester dressed puppet. Harry noticed that the jester puppet's head appeared to be horizontally split into three pieces.

"Where did you get them?" Harry asked.

"Well… I was travelling in America a year or so ago and I came across the trunk in an old hotel." The wizard explained. "I recognized the puppets from my youth, this one right here," he gently tapped the cowboy puppet, "had been in the puppet show I had watched, shooting at a puppet of Hitler. The hotel was to be torn down and no one wanted the puppets, so I brought them back here to my store."

"Can… can I buy them Mr… err…" Harry asked as he looked up at the older wizard.

"Heinz, Herr Potter," The man introduced himself. "Kasperle Heinz. Why do you want the puppets?"

"I… I don't know. I just…" Harry trailed off, not sure how to explain it as he looked down at the first puppet that he had found on the shelves. Heinz smiled as he watched the boy with the puppets.

"Ja Herr Potter," He said as he stood up. "I will sell Herr Toulon's puppets to you. Perhaps you will find the magic that gave them life so long ago, once again."

"Thank you." Harry said with a bright smile.

"Wait a moment, ja? There is one more that goes with the rest of them." Heinz said as he entered the back area of his shop. Harry looked down at the pale faced puppet again then at the rest of the trunk.

"I don't know what I'm doing buying puppets but I'll take care of you." He whispered softly.

"Here we are, this one was also with the rest of the puppets in its own case, if you are going to buy them, might as well take him as well." Heinz said as he came back with a small carrying case, opening it so Harry could see a puppet wearing a black leather coat and had a black featureless head.

A few minutes later, Harry's coin purse was 4 galleons lighter and he was dragging the old trunk, which had a feather light charm cast on it by Heinz, towards the Leaky Cauldron.

* * *

That night Harry sat in his room in front of the open trunk, pulling the items inside of it out. The puppet with the knife hand stood on the table in Harry's room watching the boy explore the trunk. On top of the trunk sat Harry's beloved owl, Hedwig, who gave her master a questioning 'Kree?'

"Aren't they neat, Hedwig?" Harry said with a grin as he held up the large puppet with the pin head. "They used to belong to a puppeteer a long time ago. They're a little strange looking but I think they're neat." He added as he eyed the puppet with the giant drill on its head. He put the puppet he was holding to the side and pulled out a couple of smaller posters from inside. Harry unrolled one that had the original owner's name on the front and advertised a show called "Faust". The poster showed a puppet that looked a little like Blade, with the same sort of face but it had no hair or hat, instead it had little curved horns on top of its head.

On the table, the puppet Blade watched the boy pull more and more out of Toulon's trunk, the bullet-like spikes in his eye sockets, popping out. This was the youngest person ever to own him and his friends, he wondered if the boy would end up finding the elixir and bring the others back to life. Then he wondered if he even wanted the boy to. They weren't nice puppets, they weren't _bad _but they weren't nice either. He and the others had killed in their long lives, sometimes violently under their bad masters. Blade reached up with his hook and pushed the brim of his hat up, should they corrupt what appeared to be an innocent child? Then again, how could he stop the boy? Blade was just thankful that Torch had been separated from the rest of them before they had been taken from the old hotel, the fire wielding puppet had no problems killing children and Blade wouldn't have wanted the younger puppet to hurt or worse kill the child.

On the other side of the room, Harry pulled out a scroll and opened it, tilting his head as he looked at what appeared to be Egyptian hieroglyphics and wondered what it was doing in a trunk full of puppets. He shrugged and put the scroll to the side, then dug into a little side pocket, fishing out a hand written book. Flipping through the book, Harry saw little drawings of each of the puppets with their names in the corner.

"Tunneler, Six-Shooter, Leech Woman, Pin Head, Blade and Jester." He named off as he flipped through the pages. He got up and walked over to the table so he could read what appeared to be a diary under the desk lamp. "So your name is Blade hmm? I guess that makes sense with your knife." He said to the puppet. Hedwig flew over to rest on the back of the chair, appearing to read the diary over Harry's shoulder.

Harry settled down to read Toulon's words about how he made the puppets and his life as a puppeteer. One part of the diary, Harry had to read twice then blink at it in confusion.

"That can't be right…" Harry said softly as he read the passage again. Toulon wrote about how, while in Egypt, he and his wife Elsa had been taught how to make an elixir that would give their puppets life and how he had brought his puppets to life. "He can't have really brought them to life… it had to be a charm or something…" Harry felt eyes on him again and looked up surprised. The Blade puppet had moved so it was looking right at Harry.

"Yo-you're not really alive are you?" Harry asked as he reached up to touch the puppet. Blade hissed and gently knocked Harry's finger away. Hedwig hooted in alarm flapping her wings, Harry turning to soothe her then turned back to the puppet. "Oh Merlin, you really are alive!" Harry bit his lip, he remembered what happened with Voldemort's diary the year before. The book had somehow been alive and had tried to drain his best friend Ron's younger sister Ginny's soul so that the younger Voldemort in the book could come to life. Harry glanced at the diary again, Toulon had written about how the puppets had _helped _him fight against the Nazis during World War 2, didn't that make the puppets good? "You're not going to hurt me or try to suck out my soul are you?"

Blade hissed softly and shook his head, watching as the boy relaxed slightly then gave him a curious look.

"Are the others alive then too?" Harry asked, looking over at the puppets by the trunk. Blade shook his head again, then pointed at the word elixir with the point of his blade. "They need their potion to wake up?" Blade nodded and watched as Harry walked over to the trunk to look for the elixir. Hedwig gave him a distrustful stare, ready to attack if she needed to protect her chick.

A few minutes later, Harry found a small box with two little bottles of glowing green liquid inside and an old fashioned syringe. He picked up the puppet called Jester and carried both items to the table. Finding the part of the diary on how to use the elixir, Harry filled the syringe up and carefully injected some into the puppet. Putting the syringe to the side, he sat back and waited to see what would happen, petting Hedwig's chest feathers.

Blade watched as well, waiting to see his friend come back to life. After a minute, Harry was starting to wonder if the elixir didn't work or if he hadn't used enough when Jester started to move. The puppet sat up and looked around then scared Harry when all three parts of his head started to spin around quickly, Harry's owl screeching in alarm again.

"Ohhh ooohhh." Jester said as his head came to a sudden stop looking up at Harry, then over at Blade. The gaunt faced puppet patted Jester on the back with his hook as Jester climbed to his feet.

"Hmm… hi? My name is Harry." Harry said.

"Ohhh." Jester looked over the boy who was to be their new Puppet Master. Harry watched, amazed as the two puppets seemed to be able to communicate with each other, then bit his lip as he looked back at the trunk. He wanted to go ahead and wake up the rest of the puppets but he was still freshly reminded of what happened with Voldemort's diary the year before and reached up to place his hand over where the scar, from the basilisk fang, was on his arm.

"Look, I think I need to contact the Headmaster of my school before I wake up the rest of your friends." Harry explained. The two puppets looked at him and Harry bit his lip again. "It's not that I don't trust you but… last year at school my best mate's little sister was given a diary by a bad man that somehow had a part of a really dark wizard in it and it tried to suck out her soul and kill me."

Harry watched amazed as Jester's face morphed into a shocked face with wide eyes and an open shocked mouth, one of the puppet's hands coming up to cover it.

"Ohhh!"

At the same time, Blade's mouth dropped open and the spikes in his eyes popped out.

"Yeah," Harry said. "I don't think you're bad but… I really think I should tell someone first." The teen watched amazed as the two puppets nodded their heads in agreement. "Thanks."

Blade and Jester watched as Harry walked over to a trunk at the end of the bed in the room and took out some parchment, a quill and ink, then brought it over to the desk to write out the letter. Both of them were surprised and quite angry that someone had tried to suck out the soul of anyone, much less a child. Yes, both of them and the rest of the puppets also contained souls, but they knew what was going on and had allowed themselves to be placed in the puppet bodies after their human bodies had been killed by the Nazis. Hell, the puppets had killed one of their last masters, Dr. Mcgrew, for forcing his assistant, a human boy named Robert, into a puppet he called 'Tank', a name that had been taken from Robert's nickname. That was hardly the first master they had killed, Blade and his friends had murdered many of their past masters, including a reanimated Toulon.

Not that they killed every master they had, when Toulon had originally been alive, they served him faithfully until the day he died, killing himself to keep the puppets and the secret of how they were alive, safe from the Nazis. Rick had almost been a kind master, he had treated the puppets like friends rather than tools and the puppets had been loyal to him. They had liked Mcgrew's daughter Jane as well, Pinhead had a special place in his heart for the girl and she had adored him, but after they killed her father well… needless to say, the puppets were sent back to the hotel where Toulon had lived up until his death. Blade had no idea what had happened to the puppet 'Tank'.

Blade thought it was good for the boy to be cautious after what happened to him the year before, as Harry finished the letter and attached it to the Snowy Owl's foot.

"Take this to Professor Dumbledore, Hedwig." Harry said as he carried Hedwig over to the window, opening it for his beloved pet. Hedwig lovingly nipped Harry's ear then gave the two puppets a glare that said 'Don't you even think about hurting my chick', then she launched off of Harry's arm into the night.

* * *

Inside of his office at Hogwarts, Albus smiled happily as he dug a lemon sherbet candy dish on his desk. The summer so far had been peaceful, there had been the scare when Harry disappeared from his house but the resourceful boy had managed to make it safely to Diagon Alley where he was staying for the rest of the summer. Albus had been spending his time between looking into what sort of object the diary that Harry destroyed was, he was starting to lean towards it being a Horcrux, and arguing with Fudge about placing Dementors around the school in an attempt to catch Sirius Black.

He was not happy about those soul sucking monsters being around his students and neither was Poppy, the school nurse. They had ordered several boxes of chocolate, he had a feeling they were going to need it, and Severus was brewing an extra-large batch of calming potions.

On a positive note, Remus Lupin had finally accepted his offer to take up the Defense Professor post, he had been trying to convince the young werewolf to come to the school the last couple of years now. Now that Harry was quite aware of the magical world, Dumbledore thought that the boy would love to meet and talk with one of his parent's friends. He just hoped that Remus would take his suggestion of getting to know Harry again.

**Tap Tap**

Albus glanced over his shoulder at one of the windows of his office, fluttering outside the window was Harry's owl Hedwig. Wondering why the lad had decided to write him a letter, Albus waved his hand to wandlessly open the window.

"Kyrreee." Hedwig landed on the desk in front of him and held out her leg. After gently removing the letter there, the owl didn't stick around for a response and quickly took off again, wanting to get back to her master.

"Hmm, I wonder what the lad wants." Albus mused to himself as he opened the parchment.

_Headmaster,_

_Today while exploring the alley, I found an old junk shop and bought a trunk full of puppets that used to belong to a man named Andre Toulon. Sir, the puppets are alive! Or at least one of them was awake, I brought a second one back to life. I don't feel as if the puppets are evil, but after what happened last year, I was wondering if someone could come and check. Blade and Jester, those are the two puppets, seem to approve of my decision. I'm in room 4-C at the Leaky Cauldron._

_Harry Potter_

"Hmmm… Toulon… Toulon…" Albus shut his eyes and used his occlumency to shift through the decades of memories. After a few minutes, he felt a memory nudge at the edge of his mind, a memory of a handsome young man and his friends performing a charming, if somewhat dark, puppet show. He also remembered hearing from some of his comrades during the war against Gellert that the Nazis had been after a man named Toulon for some reason. He wasn't sure if it was the same young man though. "Living puppets hmm? Well Fawkes, my dear friend, shall we go see these puppets and young Harry for ourselves?"

Fawkes trilled beautifully, spreading his wings and flying the short distance to Albus's desk as the man stood offering his arm for the phoenix.

"The Leaky Cauldron then, my friend." Albus requested. Fawkes sang again as he fire flashed the both of them to England.

* * *

Back in his room as he waited for someone to show up, Harry spent his time setting up a couple of wizarding history books on the desk so Blade and Jester could look at them. He watched, amazed, as the two puppets seemed to be able to read, Jester turning the pages for the both of them. The puppets seemed to act like real people. They couldn't speak, at most, Jester could make an 'ooh' sort of noise, but they acted like they understood everything Harry said to them, and they reacted to things inside of the books.

"Oohhh." Jester was pointing at one of the pages of the book while looking up at Harry. He leaned over and winced when he saw it was about himself and the end of the last war.

"Yeah, that's about me." He answered. "I don't know how much of that you can believe in. The wizarding world seems to have some strange ideas about me, they act like I'm some big hero. It was really my Mum who defeated Voldemort, not me. I'm just Harry, not this bloody 'Boy-Who-Lived' crap."

Jester gave him a sad look, he seemed to understand that Harry didn't enjoy being the 'hero' of the wizarding world. Harry was amazed that Jester's face was able to change expressions like it did. He just had a wooden head after all, but somehow the puppet was able to look sad or surprised.

**Knock-Knock**

Harry turned toward the door as someone knocked, then turned back to the puppets.

"Hide until I see who it is." He whispered. Blade and Jester quickly jumped off the table and hid themselves, peeking out of their hiding spots as Harry walked over to the room's door. "Who's there?"

"It's me, my boy." Dumbledore's voice said from the other side of the door. Harry opened the door, seeing his Headmaster standing in bright blue robes covered in stars and clouds. Fawkes trilled a greeting from Albus's shoulder.

"Headmaster." Harry said as he opened the door wider for the elderly wizard to enter. Fawkes flew off of Albus's shoulder to rest on Harry's instead. "'ello Fawkes!" Harry said as he gently petted the phoenix's chest feathers. Fawkes cooed and gently preened Harry's hair with affection. Albus smiled and closed the door.

"Now, I believe you made some new friends?" He asked. Harry smiled and turned around.

"It's ok, you can come back out. This is the Headmaster to my school." Harry called. Albus watched as two foot-high puppets, slowly walked out, looking up at the old man. Blade's eye spikes popped out as he wondered what the hell the man was wearing. "This is Blade and that one is Jester." Harry said as he pointed to each puppet.

"I see." Albus said. He walked over to the desk, tutting at the plain wooden chair, then transfigured it into a comfy arm chair that was a bright lime green. "Ah, much better."

Harry laughed softly at the chair as Albus sat down with a content sigh.

"Now my little friends, if you don't mind?" Dumbledore asked, waving his hand at the desk top. Harry helped both of them back up onto the desk, letting Fawkes walk down his arm to rest on top of the desk as well. The phoenix eyed both of the puppets who looked back at the scarlet-coloured bird, who knew that phoenixes were real after all? After a few seconds, Fawkes gave a soft trill and settled down contentedly.

Albus smiled, his familiar couldn't sense anything evil about the two puppets, deeming them safe at the moment.

"This won't hurt a bit, I just want to see…" Albus waved the Elder wand over both puppets, using a scanning spell over both of them to figure them out. Whatever brought them to life, it wasn't any spell he was familiar with but the scan did show that they were both alive, to a certain extent. "Remarkable."

"This was the diary inside the trunk." Harry said, giving it to the older wizard. Albus took the diary and quickly glanced through it. Albus discovered that this Andre Toulon was in fact the very same young puppet master whose show he had watched years ago.

Albus read that one day a sorcerer from Egypt, a man named Afzel, had been found outside the theater. Afzel had stolen something called 'the secret of life' from the temple of the Egyptian god Sutekh, or a demon that claimed to be a god at least. Afzel had claimed that one day Sutekh and others like him would walk the Earth again and the spell he had stolen may be the only thing that could defeat them. The diary went on to say how Afzel taught Toulon the spell, which allowed the souls of the recently dead to enter the bodies of the puppets. The first puppet brought to life, housed the soul of a young beggar boy that Toulon had befriended but had died of a sickness. Afterwards, Afzel and 4 of Toulon's friends were killed by Sutekh's servants. Toulon had then used the spell to bring the rest of his puppets to life and had fought against the god's servants.

Flipping through a few more pages, Albus saw how one by one, the original puppets 'died' and Toulon found himself unable to use 'the secret of life' anymore. He and his wife Elsa traveled to Cairo where they met an Egyptian magician who showed Toulon and his wife, another version of 'the secret of life', in the form of an elixir. The man taught the Toulon's how to make the elixir, though what the formula was wasn't written in the pages of the diary. From there it was just pages on the newest puppets and whose souls were housed in them. One thing Albus did see, was that the puppets always protected their Puppet Master.

_'Hmm… Puppet Master… could this be the power Tom doesn't know?' _Albus wondered as he closed the book.

"Well sir?" Harry asked.

"Mr. Toulon was quite remarkable, you should take the time to fully read his diary, my boy." Albus said as he placed the book back in Harry's hands. "But the gist of it is, you are now the Puppet Master as you brought your friend here back to life."

"Puppet Master?" Harry asked. Albus nodded, then gazed back at the two puppets on the desk.

"Yes, these two and I'm sure the rest of their comrades will follow you and protect you, am I correct?" Albus asked. He watched the two puppets nod in agreement. "Now, shall we awaken the rest of your little friends?"

Harry grinned and rushed over to the trunk where he gently picked up Pinhead, Tunneler, Leech Woman and Six-Shooter. After laying each on the desk top, Dumbledore watched as Harry loaded more of the glowing green liquid into a syringe, then inject it into each puppet. It took several minutes but, one by one, the puppets started to move on their own and stand up.

"Hee hee hee." Six-Shooter stood up and flexed his six arms while Pinhead happily greeted his fellow puppets.

"Hi." Harry said with a smile as he stood in front of the desk. The newly awakened puppets looked up at the boy, all of them startled at how _young _their newest Puppet Master was. Tunneler looked over at Dumbledore, wondering if he was the new master, but Blade and Jester, in whatever way the puppets were able to understand each other, informed their friends that, yes, the boy is their new master. Leech Woman looked worried, he was just a boy! A child, what parent would give their child, creatures like them? "My name's Harry."

"Harry, my boy, it seems to be dinner time." Albus said as he looked at his pocket watch with all the little planets around the outside. "Why don't you take Fawkes with you and have Tom bring us up a nice full dinner?"

"Oh ok." Harry said as Fawkes fluttered over from the desk to his shoulder. "Will they be ok?" he asked, looking at the puppets.

"I believe we'll be fine, lad." Albus said with a twinkle in his blue eyes. Harry looked back one final time over his shoulder then left with Fawkes gently cooing in his ear. Once the boy was down the hallway, Albus stood from the comfy chair and stood in front of the desk, looking down at the assembled puppets. "I do not understand the process that Mr. Toulon used to bring you all to life and in most circles what he did would be considered dark magic, but he seemed to believe that you all willingly allowed yourselves to be placed in these wooden bodies after you died."

Albus saw one or two of the puppets nod their heads as he spoke. "As I thought. Mr. Potter and I will endeavor to protect you from wizards that would wish to cause you harm or use you to their own gain. I will be honest with you, young Harry has a hard destiny in front of him. The man who killed his parents is still out there, bodiless but no less dangerous. He had tried to regain a body of his own at least once already and I know one day, he will succeed in doing so. You must protect Mr. Potter with all your worth, there are those out there that wish to cause him great harm."

The puppets reacted to this unseen threat to their master with displeased noises. Albus nodded his head in agreement. "Harry will have to face Voldemort one day. That is his fate, nothing can stop it. But he is taking you into a school full of children, all I ask is that you don't cause harm to any of the students or staff within the castle… unless Harry's life is in real, grave danger." He quickly amended as he thought about the last two years where his defense teachers tried to kill or harm Harry and his friends.

"The man who betrayed Harry and his parents to Voldemort recently escaped our wizarding prison and is now coming after Harry. I believe all of you will protect Harry from any harm this man can do." Blade and the others nodded, as long as Harry was a good master, the puppets would protect him willingly. Albus smiled, a part of him had been unsure of letting the puppets be around Harry. The process that made them, reeked of dark magic as it dealt with the soul, but something told Albus to trust the puppets. That Fawkes didn't deem them a danger helped as well. And who would expect a bunch of puppets to be dangerous? This could be one of the best defenses Harry had, at least for a while.

The door opened at that time, a smiling Harry entering holding a small tray of drinks while Tom, the owner of the pub, followed behind with a floating tray full of food.

"'Ere we are Headmaster!" Tom said with a smile as he settled the tray on the desk. When the man had entered the puppets had frozen in place, not alerting the man that they were alive.

"Thank you Tom, it smells quite good. And is that a piece of lemon pie I see?" Albus said with a grandfatherly smile.

"Of course, knew you would like a piece." Tom said. "I'll return for the plates later, lad. Eat up, you're all skin and bones." He ruffled Harry's messy black hair, then exited the room.

"Mister Potter, I must stress that you keep your friends a secret as much as possible." Albus said once the door was closed and he helped himself to some of the stew in one of the bowls.

"Ok, but why Professor?" Harry asked.

"Some people may not understand your new friends here." Albus explained. "It's really for their protection. I will understand, of course, if you desire to introduce them to Mister Weasley and Miss Granger, but to everyone else they are just puppets that have an animation charm on them. Do not let anyone else know they are alive if you can avoid it."

"Alright, I understand." Harry said. He didn't want the puppets taken away from him.

"Good, good, now… tell me what sort of things have you been getting up to in the alley?" Albus asked with a twinkle in his eye.

* * *

That night as Harry slept peacefully in his bed, Hedwig perched on the headboard, after her return flight from Scotland, with her head tucked under her wing, the puppets conversed among themselves in a way only they could understand.

_'Are you sure this is wise?'_ Jester asked Blade, all of the puppets glancing over at the sleeping teenager. '_He's just a kid. Should he really get tangled up with us?'_

_'Do we have a choice?'_ Blade asked. '_Whatever magic that Andre used to bring us to life has us bound to the next puppet master that awakens us.'_

_'He is a child, but I think he's seen more than anyone his age.' _Leech Woman commented, her little hands smoothing back Harry's hair from his forehead. When she had been alive, she had been the daughter of an ambassador from Switzerland named Elsa and had met her future husband, Andre, after sneaking out of the house she lived in with her father to see Paris's nightlife. She had been kidnapped by servants of a demon who wanted to kill Andre for his secret for bringing his puppets to life, different from the puppets she called friends now. Instead of going back to her father, Elsa had followed Andre and married him soon after, helping him with his puppet shows. She, like Andre, had been given the secret formula by the Egyptian wizard that allowed herself and the current puppets to be alive. She and her husband had travelled all over Europe entertaining people, mostly children, with their puppets. During the Second World War as their friends were killed by the Nazis, they transferred the souls of their dear friends into the puppets Jester, Tunneler and Six-Shooter. Later, Elsa herself, would be murdered by the Nazis who wanted the secret behind the puppets and then brought back to life by Andre in a puppet he had made for her named Leech Woman once her soul was inside. Elsa and Andre never had children of their own, so Leech Woman had a soft spot for kids. '_We promised the old man that we would protect him.'_

_'He can't be any worse than some of our past masters,' _Tunneler commented. The other puppets quickly agreed, other than Andre when he had originally been alive, the only good masters they could claim were Donny, Rick and Peter, all of whom they had served faithfully until the day they died. Their evil masters, Neil Gallagher and Dr. Magrew, they had turned against as well as Andre, after they brought their original master back to life in an attempt to brew more of the potion that let them live, but he had turned against them in his obsession to bring his wife back in a young woman that looked very much like Elsa when she had been alive. Andre's soul currently rested in the last puppet named Decapitron that Harry hadn't brought to life.

_'I think we can keep the kid safe, he seems like a tough little bugger.' _Pinhead said. He was sitting on the bedside table next to the bed, keeping watch over Harry like a protective big brother. '_These wizard guys can't be any tougher than those little demon things that tried to kill Rick.'_

_'No matter what the situation, Harry Potter is now the Puppet Master,' _Blade said seriously to his friends. '_We'll just make the best of this, like we always have. Hopefully we're right and he's a good kid.' _The other puppets nodded in agreement.

_'But what happens if we run out of the elixir?' _Jester asked. '_There isn't much left in those bottles and the kid doesn't know how to make any more. Only Toulon knew how to make it.'_

_'The wizard taught me as well but I don't remember the formula as well as I used to.' _Leech Woman said sadly.

_'Not really comfortable with making a kid handle brain matter anyway,' _Blade said. '_I know that animal brain matter can be used but it was always better with brain matter from humans.'_

_'We'll figure something out.' _Jester said, his face pulled into a sad frown.

_'There's gotta be a way, the kid's a wizard isn't he? Can't he use that spell that Toulon told us about? The one on the scroll?' _Six-Shooter asked while absently twirling one of his guns that he retrieved out of the drawer in the trunk.

_'None of us can read ancient Egyptian and I doubt he can either.' _Tunneler pointed out.

_'Hey, still worth a shot if nothing else.' _Pinhead said.

_'We'll see what happens.' _Blade said, putting an end to the conversation.

* * *

The next morning, Harry sat at the desk in his room, speaking with the puppets as he ate breakfast. It was a little hard to communicate with the puppets as they were unable to talk, so Harry had to rely on gestures and guesses when speaking with his new friends. The puppets could make sounds like 'ahhs' and 'oohs' or even moaning sounds. Six-Shooter could laugh in a sort of cartoony villain way and sometimes the puppets made, what sounded like, a low mumbling sound, like they were speaking under their breath but Harry couldn't understand the sounds no matter how hard he tried to strain his ears.

"I can't wait for you to see Hogwarts!" Harry said between bites of his porridge. Leech Woman hovered nearby, making sure he ate all of his breakfast. "The castle is beautiful to see at night, when the windows are lit up. It's my home really, I wish I could live there during the summer instead of living with my relatives. They don't like me, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon always knew I was a wizard but they tried to beat the magic out of me 'cause they didn't like it. They think I'm a freak."

The puppets reacted violently at the idea of anyone hurting their new child master.

"It's not _as_ bad as you think," Harry quickly assured them. "Mostly neglect, I had to sleep in the boot cupboard under the stairs until I got my first Hogwarts letter, and I didn't get much to eat."

_'That explains why he's so damn small for a 13 year old.' _The part of Blade that was still Dr. Heiss thought, as he looked Harry over. Too small, too skinny, really, he should have noticed when he first saw him.

"And my aunt and uncle yell at me a lot, calling me 'boy' and 'freak'. They rarely used my name." Harry kept talking. Usually he didn't tell anyone about this sort of stuff, he never ever went into how bad the abuse was at his relative's house. Ron and Hermione, his two best friends, knew that he hated living there and that his relatives didn't like him. Ron and two of his older brothers, the twins Fred and George, had to rescue him during the previous summer by pulling the bars off the window of his borrowed bedroom.

Harry, when he had first started primary school and had learned that the way he was treated wasn't right, had tried to inform his teachers about what was going on in his life. Nothing ever came out of it, except for extra chores and a beating. Harry never said anything ever again while he attended muggle school. Once he was at Hogwarts, Harry had thought about saying something but he remembered what happened the last time he reached out for help and, honestly, he was embarrassed. He was seen as some big hero in the wizarding world and to let everyone know that he was abused by his muggle family… well Harry couldn't bring himself to say anything. The closest he got was to ask Professor McGonagall if he could stay at the school during the summer but had been informed not long after that, that he _had _to return to his relatives. After that he never asked again.

But here he was, spilling his life's story to these living puppets. In a way, it was a relief to finally tell someone, even if they couldn't do anything about it. The puppets were unable to tell anyone what he said, so his secret would never get out.

"They don't feed me very much, just enough to keep me alive sometimes and never any of the fancy fatty foods that they eat. You should see my uncle and my cousin Dudley, they're huge! My aunt, on the other hand, is thin as a rail; it's funny to see her standing next to them. I also do all the cleaning and cooking in the house, as well as all the yard work. They treat me like a House Elf really." Harry said with a sigh as he pushed his empty bowl away. Jester had that mournful frown on his face again and Leech Woman laid her hands on Harry's shoulder. "Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon rarely touch me unless it's to throw me into my cupboard or Dudley's second bedroom. I've been smacked a few times by my uncle and Aunt Petunia has tried to hit me with a frying pan before."

Pinhead started cracking the knuckles of his large hands, if he ever meets this aunt or uncle of his little master, he was going to beat the shit out of them. He could see Six-Shooter out of the corner of his eye, twirling his guns again. No doubt the six-armed cowboy puppet was having the same thoughts as him. They all were in fact, even if Harry wasn't their master, he was still just a kid.

"Honestly, it's my cousin Dudley who beats me up all the time." Harry continued, not knowing his puppet's dark thoughts. "He used to play this… _game _with me and his little gang called 'Harry Hunting'. I had to learn how to be quick on my feet around them." Harry sagged in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. He felt a bit better after telling the puppets a bit about his life, but he felt drained now as it brought up a lot of memories he didn't like remembering. There was a lot he had still left out but he couldn't bring himself to talk about it anymore.

"I think I need some fresh air." Harry said as he pushed away from the desk and stood up, heading for the door of his room. Blade and Pinhead quickly followed after him to shadow Harry as he walked the streets. The good thing about being only a foot or two high, is that people rarely looked down and saw two living puppets running past them. Harry did notice them out of the corner of his eye as he entered the small alleyway that lead to Diagon Alley. "What are you two doing? You should be up in my room where you'll be safe."

Blade and Pinhead quickly shook their heads, Blade pointing at Harry with his knife.

"Are you two… are you two trying to protect me?" Harry asked. Pinhead and Blade nodded, Harry couldn't help but feel touched that somebody wanted to protect him. Him, not the whole 'Boy-who-lived' thing. And highly amused since his self-appointed bodyguards were a pair of puppets. He gave himself a moment to imagine his Potions Professor, Severus Snape, or his school rival, Draco Malfoy or even the boy's father, Lucius Malfoy, getting the crap beaten out of them by foot high puppets. He chuckled softly to himself, then looked down at his two friends again. "Ok, I guess I can't stop you but please be careful."

Blade and Pinhead nodded in agreement, watching their young master open the wall by tapping bricks in a certain order, then following after him as Harry stepped onto the busy street of Diagon Alley.

Author Note: Well, I hope everyone enjoyed this little idea I wrote up.

(1) I'm sure anyone who's familiar with the Puppet Master series is wondering, where is Torch and why is Leech Woman there. Well, Torch has no problem killing kids, something I've never seen the other puppets do in the movies, and having him around a school full of children and teenagers seems pretty stupid. The creator of the Puppet Master series has gone on record saying that Leech Woman survived the fire from the second movie and was later repaired, so that's why she's here now.


	2. Chapter 2

Master of Puppets

Author: USA Tiger

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J. K. Rowling and Puppet Master is the property of Full Moon Entertainment. I own neither.

Author Notes: I am so happy and trilled that so many people like this crossover and hope everyone enjoys the second chapter. And I'm trilled that so many people are curious about the Puppet Master series now, I hope that everyone that has checked it out has enjoyed the movies so far.

Also the rating has already jumped into the 'R' rating because of killer puppets.

More author notes at the bottom

This chapter is currently un-betaed. If anyone sees a mistake I missed, just drop me a line.

Chapter 2

"Here you go Mr. Potter," a jolly older wizard with curly mustache and goatee said with a bright smile as he placed a bowl full of chocolate ice cream in front of Harry. Harry looked up from Toulon's diary and gave the man a smile.

"Thank you Mr. Fortescue," he said as he closed the book and placed it next to Jester.

"Interesting friend you have there Mr. Potter," Fortescue said as he looked at the jester puppet sitting on the table. Jester made sure not to move, appearing to be nothing more than just a normal puppet.

"I've picked up on puppeteering," Harry said. "It seems like a fun hobby." Harry figured it would be a good excuse as to why he had several puppets with him, had even picked up a book or two on magical puppteering from the bookstore to back up his story. And honestly, after flipping one of the books, Harry was becoming interested in it, at least it looked fun.

"Well I'm glad a young lad like you is picking up an interesting hobby," Fortescue said with a smile, patting Harry on the shoulder then walking away. Harry grinned brightly as he dug into the ice cream, Mr. Fortescue gave Harry free ice cream when he came to sit in the man's shop so far during this summer. He had tried to leave money behind for the treats but Fortescue always returned it and after a while Harry gave up.

Harry glanced under the table as he felt Pinhead brush against his leg, his puppets were constantly with him when he left his room at the Leaky Cauldron. Blade and Pinhead were his most common companions and Harry couldn't believe how protective they were of him.

Eating his ice cream with one hand, Harry picked up the diary again and continued where he left off. He was… learning quite a bit about his new friends. As he already found out it wasn't all sunshine and daisies with the puppets, Toulon had them do some pretty horrible things to the Nazis during WWII but they had done horrible things to him first and it had been during a war. The Nazis had wanted his secret to bringing the puppets to life but he had refused to give it up. He could see why Dumbledore asked him not to tell anyone but his two best friends that the puppets were really alive. Harry had been shocked to find out Leech Woman was once the man's wife Elsa.

Harry was also interested to learn that _these_ puppets were not the originals, at one time Toulon had a different set of puppets that had been alive. Most of the current puppets shared similar designs and/or names with the original puppets barring one or two of them. He had found the cracked head of the one called Cyclops in the trunk back in his room at the pub, the rest of the original puppets had been destroyed during one fight or another or just became lost.

Harry also learned he was missing two puppets from Toulon's later friends, one called Shredder Khan and another unfinished puppet called Ninja. He could only assume they had become lost between the years that Toulon died and Mr. Heinz had found the puppets. (1)

"I wonder if Ancient Runes would help me learn how to read that scroll," Harry whispered to Jester. Toulon's diary mentioned the original puppets had been brought to life by a spell instead of an elixir but he had lost the power to use the spell later in life.

"Ohhhh?" Jester asked.

"Well… maybe I'll be able to translate the scroll if I took runes instead of say Divination," Harry said. He really regretted putting his name down for Divination now, after reading a few of the books at the bookstore it seemed like a bunch of hooey. At least you needed to have the 'inner eye' to properly use it and Harry was quite sure he didn't have that. Plus he had heard some stories about the professor that taught the class, Sybill Trelawney, from the older Gryffindors of how she was a drunk and had an obsession with death. Many said that was the easiest way to pass to class was to predict someone's death, earning an easy 'O'. That was the main reason Ron wanted to take the class because it was so easy and Harry signed up because his friend did.

Harry tapped his finger against the side of the ice cream bowl, he wanted to help the puppets in any way he could and knew the elixir Toulon created was running out. With careful use Harry could maybe stretch it out over a few more years but unless he found the formula or something, the puppets wouldn't stand a chance. Toulon's diary suggested that the original puppets didn't have to keep being refreshed by the spell used on them, one time use as it were, but lost the ability to use the spell. Harry wondered that as a wizard if he could use learn and use the spell, if it worked at least for a while for Muggle it should work for him… he hoped so anyway.

"I'll send an owl to Professor McGonagall to ask," Harry decided as he closed the book and tucked it into his pocket to finish up his melting ice cream. Once he was done Harry picked up Jester and left the ice cream shop, faintly hearing the **tap-tap-tap** of Pinhead following behind them. It was amusing how no one seemed to notice the puppets when they shadowed Harry in the alley.

Harry headed down the alley toward the shop where he and Hagrid had picked out his trunk in his first ever trip to Diagon Alley. Not that there was anything wrong with Harry's current school trunk, it was still very useable, but Toulon's old trunk on the other hand… well it was falling apart to be quite honest. The locks on the front looked like they had been melted off, the sides of the trunk were peeling and Harry had no idea how the old trunk held together as well as it did. And he couldn't really bring two trunks to Hogwarts so he was hoping to find a larger trunk to fit both his school things and the things from Toulon's old trunk in. Plus he was hoping to find a small lock box to put some of the more important items like the diary, the elixir and the scroll with the Egyptian spell in for safety.

"Welcome to Leto's Luggage and Trunks," a bored sounding young man said as Harry entered the shop. Harry held the door open just long enough for Pinhead to slip in behind his legs then walked over to the counter where the young man was. The man straightened up in a hurry when he saw the lightning bolt scar on Harry's forehead. "Yes Mr. Potter, what can I do for you?"

"I need a new trunk," Harry said sheepishly. "The one I have already isn't big enough anymore."

"That's ok Mr. Potter, with all the books and supplies you need at Hogwarts, sometimes students outgrow their trunks," the boy said as he pulled out a book and started to flip through it. "Yeah, you got a standard trunk, not much expansion charms on it to make it bigger. So let me show you want we got in stock."

"Thank you Mr…. ummm…" Harry hesitated as he didn't know the young names name.

"Just call me Leto, same name as my granddad who owns the shop," Leto said. "And none of that mister stuff either."

"Alright," Harry said with a grin. "I'm not sure what I need…"

"Well let's look around," Leto said eagerly, excited to be the one selling a new trunk to the Boy-Who-Lived. Like many others he was a fan of the boy and had been trying to capture a glimpse of the young hero in the alley but hadn't been able to leave the shop. So to have the boy come into his granddad's shop on his own… "So what sort of trunk did you have in mind?"

"Are there different types?" Harry asked. Jester looked around as well, being careful not to be caught by Leto moving while Pinhead kept to the shadows.

"Well you got the standard trunks, just one compartment," Leto explained. "Some of expansion charms on them to make them bigger on the inside. Or…" Leon looked around before bending in close to Harry. "You could get a multi-compartment trunk. Most students don't use them, not unless you're an uppity pureblood, but I don't think it's against Hogwart's rules."

Harry thought about it for a moment, he could see the advantage of have a trunk with more than one compartment. He could use one for his school things and set up a second compartment for the puppets to use.

"Can we look at those then?" Harry asked. Leto grinned and motioned for Harry to follow him toward the back where the multi-compartment trunks stood waiting.

"Here we go, have everything from 2 to 5 compartment trunks," Leto said with a flourished wave of his hand. "Some of the compartments are as big as rooms."

"Do some of them have apartments in them," Harry asked jokingly.

"We've tried to design some in the past," Leto said with a serious nod. "But really the design was impractical, what if something is set on top of the trunk, you'd never get out of it then. Wizarding tents are much easier to deal with." Harry blinked, he hadn't been serious when he asked that.

"Well let me look at some of the 2 or 3 compartments then. I don't need one with a big room, but plenty of space wouldn't hurt," Harry said. Leto showed Harry and Jester several different trunks, rattling off the features of each trunk. In the end Harry picked out a nice black trunk with 3 compartments and a strong security measure on it that insured Harry would be the only one getting into the trunk. Leto was a little confused when Harry asked if the third compartment could be rigged to where it could be opened from the inside but with a few extra galleons pushed his way he didn't question the request. Harry and his two puppets watched as Leto spelled the trunk with everything Harry wanted, stamping Harry's initials on top of the latch then handed over three keys, one for each compartment.

"If you don't have any use for your old trunk Mr. Potter, you could always bring it back here," Leto suggested as Harry finished paying for his new trunk, his coin purse several galleons lighter but worth every gold coin in Harry's opinion.

"Hmm… oh yeah sure," Harry said absently. "Could you spell this feather light?"

"Sure thing," Leto said, fighting to keep the grin off his face. He was going to keep Harry's old trunk for himself as a keepsake but he wasn't going to tell the younger wizard that.

* * *

Back at the Leaky Cauldron, Tom helped Harry take his new trunk up to his room while Harry carried Jester and Pinhead.

"There you go Mr. Potter," Tom said as he set the trunk down. "Anything else?"

"Well… I'm gonna need to take my old trunk back to the shop, they said they can resell it," Harry said as he set the puppets down on the desk.

"Oh just leave the trunk out in the hallway with a note of where it's going, I'll have it delivered for you," Tom said. Harry thanked Tom as he left then turned to look at the trio of trunks in his room.

"What do you guys think?" Harry asked as he opened the new trunk to the third compartment, setting the trunk on its end. "This one is all yours, I can set it up like Mr. Toulon did and you'll be able to get out any time you want. As long as there isn't something sitting on top or another compartment is open at the time that is."

The puppets came over, looking at the trunk space Harry provided them. It was a little bigger than their old trunk, which they were sad to see go simply because it was one of their last links to their old friend and original master Andre but really as old as the trunk was and the damage it had taken over the years, all of them were surprised it hadn't fallen apart by now. Harry grinned as the puppets nodded their approval of the new trunk.

With their help Harry carefully transferred everything from Toulon's old trunk to his new one, sliding the shelves and drawers into place. The puppets didn't seem to keep much for comforted, when the elixir ran out they were lifeless anyway and had no idea what was going on around them and even active and alive as they were, things that would make a human being uncomfortable didn't both them anymore.

Next Harry started cleaning out his old trunk, throwing away bits of old parchment, broken quills and any other trash he found while moving his school books, potions kit and school robes over into the first compartment of the new trunk.

"Hmmm," Leech Woman stopped Harry as he moved to pick up his clothing to put in the trunk, giving an ugly look at the rags.

"Sorry, this is all I have to wear," Harry said. "My relatives never bought me any new clothing, I just get Dudley's old stuff." Leech Woman did not look happy with this news and patted Harry's coin purse while looking at the rags. Harry frowned as he puzzled out the meaning of her actions. "You think I should buy new clothing? I wish I could but I don't think they sell muggle clothing in the alley and I can't leave to go into the muggle side of London, I know Tom would stop me. Of course I could use my cloak to sneak out…" Harry mused over the idea. He was use to wearing Dudley's cast offs and while he hated wearing them he never really gave any thought of buying himself new stuff.

Part of him was worried though, he didn't want the Dursleys knowing about his family's money as he was sure his greedy uncle Vernon would insist he 'share' with his 'loving' family. And unless a miracle happened Harry would be returning to his relative's house at the end of the school year like he had for the last two years. On the other hand with this new trunk he may be able to hide any new clothing he got in the second compartment and would only have to wear his cast offs while at his Aunt's house.

"We'll see about getting new stuff tomorrow, I have to convert some wizarding money into muggle," Harry said his decision made. It would be nice to own something new and that would fit him, something he could wear around the school without having to wear one of the heavy school robes over it. The puppets looked happy with his decision.

* * *

The next morning Harry swung his invisibility cloak on around his shoulders and carefully opened the door, peering out into the hallway. Blade, Pinhead and Tunneler stood under the cloak with him, marveling at the handy object.

"Let's go," Harry whispered as they slipped out of his room. He had gone the afternoon before to Gringotts to exchange his money for pounds, enough to buy him a couple of pairs of pants and a few shirts and maybe a new pair of shoes for sure. He was currently dressed in his best pair of school pants and a Weasley's jumper so whatever store he went too didn't think he was some sort of beggar and thief.

He was also _very_ grateful that the mirror in his room was charmed not to tell anyone that happened in his room and had a spell on it that would erase everything from the charmed looking glass every time the person staying in the room left. Tom had assured him of that after the first night he stayed at the inn, several muggleborns and half bloods had complained about their privacy in the past that the spells had been placed on all the mirrors in each room. If the mirror had remembered anything it would have told Tom about the puppets and his plans for today.

Downstairs Harry and the trio of puppets waited by the door for it to open, Harry's skinny frame slipping through door as it closed easily. He went down several streets under his cloak, careful not to bump into anyone until he felt he was far enough away to not be seen by any stray wizard or witch. Ducking into an alleyway to pull his cloak off and stuff it in a bag, Harry looked down at his small friends.

"You'll be alright right?" He asked softly. "You won't be seen?" Blade nodded to let his master know they would be safe and able to keep an eye on their young master. Harry nodded back then left the alleyway after making sure no one was watching. Finding information about where he could find someplace to shop was easy, there were stores close to Kings Cross station he could use.

Once he found a store suited to his needs, Harry easily lied about his luggage being lost on a train and needing a few things to wear until he was able to return home and that his parents sent him in the store alone while they shopped someplace else. Thankfully the store clerk seemed to buy it and helped Harry find a few pairs of pants and shirts to buy. Harry also bought a pair of comfy boots and a new pair of trainers, he had more than enough to pay for all the clothing and enough money left over for other things.

Once Harry stood outside the store, a couple of bags worth of clothing on one arm, he looked around to see what else was there. Seeing a book store on the corner, Harry headed that way drawn to it. Inside it was cool, a stark difference from the heat outside and Harry was glad he exchanged his jumper for one of his new shirts before leaving the clothing store.

"Morning!" A girl behind the counter said cheerfully. "Anything I can help you look for?"

"Anything on Egypt? Or maybe puppets?" Harry asked.

"Puppets would be in the hobby section," The girl said. "Anything particular on Egypt?"

"Ummm… maybe some of its myths or maybe… their magic?" Harry asked rubbing one of his arms. "Just out of curiosity."

"Oh don't worry, I like looking up books on the occult myself. I don't believe in any of that stuff but it's fun to read," the girl said with a grin. "Well, try the world culture aisle and maybe the occult section. Hey, want to leave your bags over here behind the counter? I'll keep an eye on them for you until you're done."

"Really? That would be great," Harry said with a smile, handing his bags over. The girl tucked them under the counter and watched the boy disappear into the aisles of books. She sighed to herself, the boy was a cutie but too young for her, if only he was a little older… She never noticed the trio of puppets that followed Harry down the book aisles.

Harry browsed the hobby section first, picking up a couple of books dealing with how to create and repair puppets. He didn't know if he ever wanted to make a puppet of his own, not of course to place a soul in he didn't think he could ever do that to anyone, but he thought it could be useful if he ever needed to repair one of his friends. Harry also found a book on the history of puppets and puppeteering, looking through the index he was surprised to see Toulon's name there.

"Hey look, Mr. Toulon's name is in here," he whispered to the puppets as he knelt down to show them, turning to the page. It wasn't much, just a brief history on the man and his years of puppeteering, being famous for his stingless puppets. Harry decided to get the book anyway even if there wasn't much on Andre Toulon. The puppets made soft sounds as they looked at the photo of their first master as they remembered him in his later years.

Over in the occult section Harry found a book stuffed back behind others on a shelf about Egyptian magics, he wasn't sure how useful the book was going to be since it was a muggle book but he didn't really have any other leads. He also picked up a book on Egyptian history and its pantheon of gods.

"So is this all?" The clerk asked as Harry returned.

"Yeah," Harry said as he paid.

"Well if you need any other books to read, just stop by," the girl said with a wink as she handed Harry a bag with the books and his bags of clothing. Harry blushed and quickly hurried out the door making the girl giggle. Her giggles caught off as something small and dark darted out the door after Harry. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. "What the bloody… I think I've been working too hard, I could have sworn I just say a doll with a drill on its head…."

* * *

Harry quickly headed down the road with his bags of clothing and books, heading back toward Charring Cross Road to sneak back into the Leaky Cauldron. Hopefully Tom hadn't entered his room to check on him and discovered that he was gone. He was nearing the alleyway where he had hid to take off his cloak, just one more block…

Harry yelped as someone grabbed him from the alleyway he was passing, a hand covering his mouth before any more sound could escape. The Puppets quickly took off after Harry and his attacker.

"Well well, what do we have here?" An oily sounding man's voice asked in Harry's ear. "A little rich boy who's mummy and daddy let him go shopping all by himself?" Harry struggled and bit down on the hand covering his mouth, dropping all his bags to the ground during the struggle. He gagged slightly at the taste of dirt and blood while the man howled in pain and ripped his hand away.

"Let me go!" Harry said as he struggled harder only to stop as a cold sharp knife pressed again his neck.

"Listen here you little shite, be a good boy or I'm going to make you regret crossing me," the mugger said. Harry's breath quickened slightly, swallowing heavily as the knife pressed a little harder against his throat, slicing the skin a little and a trickle of blood pouring down his neck. "Understand?"

"Y-yes," Harry said, wishing he could reach his wand but the man too tight of a grip on his arms to reach where his wand was in his pocket.

"Good, now hand over all you- ARGGEEEE!" As the man talked Blade rushed forward and sliced his knife against the back of the man's legs, cutting deeply and making the man loose his balance. He dragged Harry down with him, grunting as Harry kicked him and rolled away to the wall on the other side of the alley. Harry gasped in pain as the pavement scraped his arms and quickly pressed a hand to his neck over the cut.

The mugger screamed in pain and fear as Pinhead held him down by the shoulders and Blade jumped on his chest, his knife hand quickly swing side to side as he cut up the man's face. The man tried to get up but Pinhead kept him pin to the ground as Blade jumped off the man. (2)

"Make them stop!" The man begged. Harry said nothing to stop his Puppets, not only was he too shocked to but part of him wanted this man to suffer for attacking him. The man and Harry's attention was drawn to Tunneler as the drill on top of his head started to spin and Tunneler leaned forward, running at the man drill first right into his chest over his heart. The man's screams quickly turned into a wet gurgle as he spit up blood as Tunneler's sharp drill dug into his heart. The mugger's body jerked and twitched in death then went deadly still.

Harry stood on shaky legs, he needed to get out of here before anyone discovered him with the dead body. He looked down at the three Puppets, who had just tortured and murdered a man in the most brutal way. There was blood dripping off Blade's knife hand and Tunneler's whole head was covered with blood and pits of gore. Would their young master reject them now? Harry looked back at them and quickly made his decision. He had already known the Puppets killed Nazis in the past and they had only attack and killed the man because he had attacked and hurt Harry. He had had some idea what he was getting into with the puppets and wouldn't abandon them now.

"Come on, we need to get out of here," Harry said as he gathered his bags then took out his invisibility cloak, throwing it around himself then picked up the Puppets, running down the road toward the Leaky Cauldron, careful not to brush up against anyone on the way.

As soon as Harry disappeared under his cloak and his footsteps could no long be heard, a large shaggy black dog stepped out of the shadow. The dog's stormy grey eyes looked over at dead mugger, growling low in its throat, then looked at the mouth of the alley way. Seeing that no one was coming into the alley, the dog's shaped blurred and was instantly was replaced by a gaunt looking man with stringy black hair and a scruffy looking beard.

The man was Sirius Black, and escaped prisoner of the British wizarding world's worst prison ever Azkaban. He was accused of being the Dark Lord Voldemort's right had man and for selling out the Potters to the dark lord. But that couldn't be further from the truth. While he did come from a very dark family, Sirius would have never ever followed the dark tosser for he was firmly on the side of good. And he certainly would have never betrayed the Potters. James, who was his cousin as well as his best friend, had been his brother in all but blood, a closer and better brother that his real brother Regulus. Lily, James's wife, had also become a really close friend when they started dating and later married. And Harry, his sweet little Godson, Sirius could _never_ betray that sweet baby. He loved Harry as if the boy had been his own son.

If only he hadn't trusted that little _rat_ Pettigrew. He thought he was being so clever, that his family would be so safe. Everyone _knew_ he would be the secret keeper so what better way to throw people off than to make their good buddy Peter the secret keeper? Peter who was magically weaker and a bit of a coward but every so loyal… Well looked how that worked out. That little traitor had been working for Voldemort the whole time and told his master where the Potter's were the first chance he got. And Sirius never got to tell anyone what happened! They tossed him in a cell at Azkaban as soon as he was caught, never once gave him a trial. Then he had seen the newspaper… saw that little _rat_ on the Weasley boy's shoulders and Merlin… what if Wormtail tried to hurt his little Harry?

So he escaped, slipped through the bars of his cell one night in his dog from, escaped from the prison and swam to shore. First thing he did was go check on his pup but that had taken time. He wasn't living with the Longbottom's, Alice had been Harry's godmother and he knew what happen to her and Frank already, and everywhere else he checked he couldn't find Harry! Not even with his good cousin Andromeda Tonks and her family. His heart had frozen when he thought of one place his pup would be but surely no one was that stupid to put Harry with that horrid woman? But checked he did, though it took a bit of remembering where Lily's sister lived, only to find his beloved godson running away dragging a heavy trunk behind him.

Why? Whywhywhy? Why would _anyone_ place Harry with Petunia Dursley nee Evans? Lily's older sister had hated sweet Lily and Lily and James had both put into their wills that Harry was never to go to her! He was sorry he had scared his pup that night but at least Harry was able to summon the Knight Bus and he had stuck around long enough to hear Harry request the Leaky Cauldron. Knowing his pup was safe Sirius resumed making his way to Hogwarts to hunt down that _rat_.

Sirius's current plan was to get to King's Cross station and follow along the rail road tracks that the Hogwarts Express took. It was purely by chance he had been passing the alley way when he caught Harry's scent and heard his godson's voice, rushing down to save his pup only to arrive in time to see those weird doll things attack the man. He had been afraid they were turn and attack Harry next so he was a little shock when Harry picked them up and swooped out of the alley way.

"If those things with my pup hadn't already killed you," Sirius growled down at the corpse, giving it a swift kick to the chest. Sirius ignored the blood on his stolen boots as he started to pace back and forth, trying to figure out what to do. He couldn't just leave the man here to be found, he wasn't sure what was going with Harry and those clearly dark dolls but he had to protect his pup. No, he had to get rid of the body.

With a manic grin Sirius turned and used the wand he stolen from one of the guards at Azkaban, turning the body into a little wooden statue. He picked it up and tossed it into the trash bin then banished all the blood and gore that painted the brick walls of the alley. Then he set the trash inside the bin on fire, destroying all evidence then quickly turned into a dog and ran off as someone noticed the smoke from the bin. He wondered just how the Muggles noticed that but not someone screaming in death.

_'Eh, muggles, don't notice anything right in front of their noses,'_ Padfoot thought as he disappeared into the shadows.

* * *

Once Harry reached the Leaky Cauldron he slowed down, watching people enter and exit the door. It was a lot busier now than it was when he left that morning. He timed it carefully then slipped in behind a group of wizards that were laughing and joking with each other. The young wizard then carefully made his way through the pub to the stairs in the back that lead up to the inn rooms.

He breathed a sigh of relief once he was safe in his room, pulling his cloak off and setting the puppets on the floor. The other puppets quickly joined them as Harry slid to the floor, his back against the door. Tunneler, Blade and Pinhead looked at each other worried about how Harry was going to reach.

"Hee hee hee," Six-shooter's laugh broke Harry out of his thoughts.

"I… I'm a bit weirded out by what just happen… you killed that guy," Harry said as he stood up and walked into the little bathroom. He winced as he looked at the cut on his neck, he needed to put a plaster on that, then grabbed a flannel from the towel rack. He held it under the water in the sink then walked back out into the main room. "I-I knew that you guys killed people before of course, Mr. Toulon's diary said so. I guess I'm just shocked to see it." Harry sat down on the floor again and picked up Tunneler, starting to clean the blood off the puppet's drill and face. "But… you saved my life and you didn't attack that man until after he had already attacked me first. You guys really are looking out for me aren't you?"

The puppets nodded making Harry smile slightly, he never had anyone really look out for him before, except maybe his friends. The feeling was really nice and was glad to have the puppets with him… if they were little murderers.

_'Well can't say that guy didn't deserve it,'_ Harry mused as he wiped off the last of the blood on Tunneler's face and let the drill-headed puppet jump down to the floor, cleaning off Blade's knife hand next as the grim-faced looking puppet held it up. _'Who knows how many other people that guy has mugged like that. He may have even killed people in the past, or at least really hurt them. I can't say I'm really all that upset by what happen, just shocked to see to see some killed so brutally.'_

Harry tossed the flannel into the clothes basket by the door, hoping no one will ask why it was covered with blood, and got a first aid kit that he had Hermione send him at the start of summer out of his trunk to take care of the cut on his neck.

Harry was startled a few minutes later by a knocking on his room door.

"Mr. Potter?" Tom's voice said from the other side of the door. "Are you alright in there?" Harry quickly tossed a school robe on over his bloodied clothing, the puppets running to hide as he opened the door. "Ah, there you lad."

"Is there a problem?" Harry asked.

"No no, no problem," Tom said with a mostly toothless grin. "Just wondering where you were, I hadn't seen you all day, usually you're out in the alley by now. You're not sick are you?"

"No, I'm fine time, really," Harry said with an easy smile. "Just thought I would have a lazy day today and sleep in while I have the chance. Don't really get to during the school year you know." Tom laughed and nodded his head, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ah, lazy summer days, guess everyone needs one," he said. "Well you missed breakfast so how about I bring you up some lunch."

"That would be wonderful Tom," Harry said. "I'll just have whatever the special is." Tom nodded and left, his mind at ease knowing Harry was just up in his room all morning. Harry breathed a sigh of relief and quickly closed and locked the door. "That was close."

Harry quickly changed his blood stained clothing out for something clean, hoping the blood would come out of his school pants and his new shirt, into a pair of loose lounge pants and a sleep shirt, giving off the illusion he really had been sleeping in. He quickly placed the rest of his bags into the bathroom just as somebody knocked on the door. On the other side was one of Tom's servers who chatted happily as she floated a tray full of food and a couple of bottles of butter beer onto the desk in the room. After making sure Harry didn't need anything the girl left, leaving Harry to his own devices. He locked the door and went over to see what Tom had sent up, starving after missing breakfast and everything else that morning. His stomach grumbled happily as he sent what looked like a stew with a healthy hunk of bread on the side and a treacle tart for dessert.

* * *

Days later it was near the end of summer. Harry had spent the rest of his day within the safety of Diagon Alley, no one had questioned him about his new clothing but then again he had mostly worn his school robes on top of his old cast-offs so few people knew about them anyway. Neither Tom nor any of his employees had questioned Harry about the blood-soaked washcloth or clothing, which was good since he couldn't think of a good excuse to explain it away. Since he had bought new muggle clothing, Harry had gone ahead and got him a few robes and cloaks that weren't school related. It made him feel like a proper wizard at times. He had also gotten a letter back from Professor McGonagall, approving his elective change from Divination to Ancient Runes. In fact Harry could have almost sworn that his Head of House almost sounded gleeful about it. Ron would be disappointed he knew when his friend found out.

Speaking of Ron, he and his family were suppose to come to Diagon Alley, getting their school things and staying the night before heading off to Hogwarts the next day. Hermione was going to be here too, he couldn't wait to introduce them to the puppets.

He grinned as he heard the familiar voices of the Weasley's outside of his door as he pulled on his new boots. He quickly opened the door to his room as Fred and George, Ron's told twin brothers, playfully bantered back and forth who would wake up 'icky little Harry-kins'.

"Harry!" Ron said with a grin when he noticed the door was open.

"Ron, how was your trip to Egypt?" Harry asked as he pulled his friend into his room then quickly shut the door before the twins got it into their mind to follow. He heard Percy, the third Weasley son, bellow from down the hall about the twins stealing his Head Boy badge. "Percy is Head Boy?"

"Uhgg yes, the prat hasn't shut up about it," Ron said with a roll of his eyes. He sat down on the edge of Harry's bed. "Egypt was great, Bill took us to see all kinds of things. The twins tried to shut Percy up in a pyramid but Mum stopped them in time. You should have seen this one freaky sight mate, it was dedicated to this old evil Egyptian god, Set-something or other."

"You mean Sutekh?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, that might have been one of the names for the god I think," Ron said. Around the room the Puppets looked at each other, Sutekh was the god who tried to kill their master Toulon in the past before they were created then tried to kill one of their other good masters Rick twice. They and Decapitron, the puppet that housed Toulon's soul, had defeated Sutekh and his unholy creations and had weaken the god. Blade hoped this didn't mean the old god was going to come back. "Anyway how was your summer?"

Harry told Ron a bit about the start of his summer, about Marge and how he accidently blew the woman up then spent the rest in Diagon Alley.

"Blimey mate, the whole summer by yourself in Diagon Alley," Ron said in a wistful tone, wondering what it would be like.

"Yeah it's been nice, a great break from my relatives," Harry agreed. "Too bad I'll likely have to go back to their house next year. But staying here isn't the most awesome thing that happen."

"What could be better than stay here in the alley?" Ron asked then scratched the side of his head. "Well I guess as few things are better." Harry laughed softly at his friend.

"No, I meant something I found here. During the summer I came across this old junk shop and ended up buying this old trunk that use to belong of a man name Andre Toulon."

"Who's he?" Ron asked.

"An old French man who was a puppeteer," Harry said. "It's the puppets that were special."

"Special how?" Ron asked confused.

"Come on out guys," Harry said turning to the room. Ron's mouth dropped open as a bunch of weird looking, and even slightly creepy, doll-like puppets came out of hiding. There were six puppets in all, lined up in front of them on the floor.

"Bloody hell!" He said.

"Ron, these are my new friends," Harry said. "That's Blade, Jester, Pin-head, Tunneler, Leech Woman and Six-shooter." He pointed to each puppet in turn.

"Friends?" Ron asked he was eyeing Six-shooter a little nervously; the puppet's multi-arms reminded him of a spider.

"Yeah, they're alive Ron," Harry said.

"Alive? How is that possible? Are you sure they aren't just under really good animation charms?" Ron asked. He watched as one of the puppets, the one Harry called Jester, walk over to the room's desk and pick up a small diary from the top then brought it over to Harry.

"Thanks Jester," Harry said as he took it then turned to Ron holding up the little book. "In here Mr. Toulon wrote about how he transferred the souls of a bunch of his friends and his wife into the puppets after they were killed by Nazis. The puppets are really alive, it's not just a charm that lets them move around and stuff. They can think and feel like a person."

"Harry, are you sure that's safe?" Ron hissed in a whisper. He thought back on the dairy that his younger sister Ginny had the year before, how the dark magic inside had tried to consume her soul so Voldemort could have a new body. Or at least that's how Harry explained it later to him and Hermione. "I mean that's dark magic mate! Maybe we should take them to my dad."

"No Ron," Harry said firmly. "Professor Dumbledore has already checked them out and said that they are alright."

"…. The professor knows about them?" Ron asked his thoughts grinding to a halt. When Harry nodded Ron quickly rethought the puppets, Dumbledore was well respected by his family and most of the wizarding world as a whole. If the headmaster said these weird looking puppets were ok…. "So they really are alive?" He asked as he calmed down.

"Yeah and they are really protective," Harry said. "At least one of them is always with me when I leave the inn. Professor Dumbledore said I'm a 'Puppet Master' or something."

"So you can order them around?" Ron asked, he watched as the puppets seem to relax a bit and were sitting down in various places in the room.

"Err… I guess but why would I?" Harry said. "They're living people in the bodies of puppets, they have their own feelings."

"Ohhh," Jester said, happy that Harry felt that way. Their good masters were like that as well, they never really ordered the puppets around like their bad masters had.

"Hmm… guess I never thought of it that way," Ron said as he looked down at Jester who was sitting on the bed with him and Harry. He jumped when Jester's head started to spin. Harry laughed softly at the startled look, happy that Ron was accepting the puppets so easily once he told him Dumbledore okayed the puppets. Of course he wasn't going to tell Ron or Hermione about the puppets murdering the mugger in the alleyway to save his life.

"Ron, you can't tell anyone about the puppets being alive," Harry said.

"Humm?" Ron looked up at Harry again.

"Dumbledore said I could only tell you and Hermione that they are really alive," Harry said. "Everyone else needs to think they are puppets charmed to move."

"Huh…. Guess that makes sense," Ron said. "I mean it sounds like dark magic went into making them; that would make a lot of people unhappy."

"So keep it a secret ya?" Harry asked.

"Sure thing mate," Ron agreed. "Come on, Hermione said in her letter that she's suppose to be here today too and I need to head to Magical Menagerie."

"What for?" Harry asked, letting Jester climb onto his shoulder before standing up with Ron. Ron gave the jester looking puppet an odd look then shook his head, taking his pet rat Scabbers out of his breast pocket.

"I need some rat tonic," he said as he held Scabbers out for Harry to see. The rat looked horrible Harry noticed. The usually fat gray rat had lost a lot of weight and was now missing large patches of fur all over his body.

"What happen?" Harry asked as they headed for the door, leaving it open long enough for Blade to slip out then headed down the hallway for the ground floor of the pub.

"I don't know, he was fine at the start of the summer but a couple of weeks before we came back he just started getting sick," Ron said in worry. He petted the rat then gently lowered him back into his pocket. Harry felt bad for Ron, he knew Scabbers was a hand-me down from his older brother Percy and had received the rat in his first year at Hogwarts since Percy had been given his own owl for making Prefect. The rat had always been fat and lazy, mostly just lying around sleeping day in and day out, but Ron had always done his best to take care of the useless rat.

"Well maybe at the store a vet that can look at him," Harry offered.

"What's a 'vet'?" Ron asked confused.

"A doctor, err healer, for animals, it's short for veterinarian," Harry explained. Ron looked confused for a second more then shook his head, he never would understand muggles. A healer just for animals?

"Harry! Ron!" An excited squeal came from the other side of the pub, alerting the two boys that Hermione was there right before she hugged each of them.

"Ello Hermione, how was your summer?" Harry asked with a grin.

"It was very exciting," Hermione said. "I have a lot of fun and learned so much. Harry, what is that on your shoulder?"

"This is Jester, a puppet I bought this summer," he said. Jester gave Hermione a little wave.

"A puppet?" Hermione asked with a frown. There was a little something creepy about it, like it was really looking at her. Which was silly, it had to just have a really good animation charm on it like the figurines she saw in some of the wizarding stores. "Are you looking forward the school year? I am, I can't wait to start Ancient Runes."

"Yeah, the runes in the book looked pretty interesting," Harry agreed.

"Why would you be looking in the book?" Ron asked. "You're not taking Ancient Runes."

"Well… umm… Actually Ron I dropped Divination," Harry said. "And asked Professor McGonagall if I could take runes instead. I mean I still got the book, I got it before I switched classes so you can have it if you want, but I'm not going to be there."

"What! Why not?" Ron asked feeling a little betrayed.

"I feel like I need it Ron," Harry said. "More so that just trying to get an easy grade. Besides, we still got Care of Magical Creatures together." Ron huffed slightly then sighed, he didn't understand why Harry would want to go for a harder class like Runes.

"I think you're mad mate," He said.

"So where are we going first?" Hermione asked as they entered the tiny courtyard behind the Cauldron. She quickly turned her head to look behind her when she thought she heard something moving and frowned when she didn't see anything. Blade carefully peeked around the edge of the trash bin, watching as Hermione shrugged her shoulders and turned back to the boys.

"Magical Menagerie," Harry said as the wall opened.

"Oh good! My parents said I can finally have a pet, I'm thinking of getting an owl…" The trio's voices faded into the crowd as they entered the alley. Blade made a little panicked sound, the spikes in his eyes popping out and quickly ran for the quickly closing wall. He just managed to clear it and ran down the street after his young master, dodging feet of the many witch and wizards there.

* * *

Author notes: (1) Shedder Khan, or as some fans call him Shogun, is a living puppet that was seen right at the start of the first film and the ninth film but was never used beyond that. Ninja was a puppet in the ninth film that Toulon had been working on but never finished. The main character of that film laid the soul of his older brother into the Ninja puppet but the puppet died at the end of the film.

(2) In the movies Pinhead is really strong, he can easily drag a human body around so he can easily pin this guy to the ground.

Sakura Lisel – you didn't have an account so I have to answer here. The puppet you are thinking of is called 'Dr. Death', he was one of the Retro puppets. They never really said what happen to him and the other Retro puppets, except for Cyclops, so it's possible for other puppets Toulon made could come into the series. I already plan on including Torch much later.

Please remember everyone that this isn't one of my main series fics I work on, so it won't be updated as quickly as many of my other fanfics, it's just a little side project I work on sometimes.


	3. Chapter 3

Master of Puppets

Author: USA Tiger

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J. K. Rowling and Puppet Master is the property of Full Moon Entertainment. I own neither.

Author Notes: So there is a comic series that comes after the movie series, I'm not sure how canon they are but for now I am considering them canon and the fic is now an alternate timeline from the comic series as some of the events from the fic would overlap those in the comics. But the comics does give me a lot of ideas that deals with the Puppet Master side of the crossover and as I am only up to issue 18 of the comics, those ideas could change as more of the storyline is revealed.

This chapter is betaed by Cylon One.

Chapter 3

The inside of Magical Menagerie was filled to the brim with animals, the air filled with the meowing of cats, barking of dogs, the squeaks of rats and the hissing of snakes just to name a few. To Harry the snake hissing sounded like English thanks to his Parseltongue ability. The only sound missing were the sound of owls and other birds as they were sold at Eeylops Owl Emporium next door. Ron walked up to the counter to speak to the clerk, holding Scabbers between his hands. At the same time, a fat orange fur ball jumped onto the countertop startling Ron, Scabbers and the clerk.

"Crookshanks, no!" the clerk said as he quickly picked up the thing which turned out to be a cat with a flat face, bowed legs and bright orange fur. The cat called Crookshanks was quickly placed on the floor and shooed away. "Ruddy cat. So what can I help you with?"

"I need some tonic for my rat," Ron said holding Scabbers up for the man to see.

"Kinda old isn't he? How long have you had him?" The clerk said as he took Scabbers from Ron with a slightly disgusted look.

"He used to belong to my older brother," Ron said with a shrug. "He just started looking like this a couple of weeks ago."

"Hmmm…. Maybe it's his time to go. You could replace him with a new rat," the clerk nodded to a cage on the counter. Harry and Jester looked inside, the rats were a lot more active than Harry had ever seen Scabbers. Their fur color ranged from a normal brown or black to a bright purple color and they were doing flips and tricks, the fur color on some of the rats was either a charm or a magical breed of rodent he never heard of before.

"I don't want to replace him," Ron said with a bit of a scowl as he stuffed Scabbers back in his pocket. "I just need some rat tonic." The clerk rolled his eyes and turned around, taking a small glass bottle off a shelf.

"Here then," the clerk said. Ron quickly paid for the tonic and started for the door, he stopped as the cat Crookshanks stood in front of them. "Crookshanks! Bad cat! Come here!" Crookshanks flicked his tail then started to slowly walk away.

"Hermione we're leaving," Harry called.

"I want to look around a little bit more, I'll join you in a few minutes," Hermione called back from one of the shelves.

"Bloody hell, did you see the size of that cat?" Ron asked as soon as they were outside the store. "I thought he was going to eat Scabbers for sure."

"Are you sure that was a cat? Looked like a small tiger to me," Harry said jokingly.

"Ohhh," Jester said in agreement. Harry felt a brush against his leg letting him know Blade was there. A few minutes later Hermione exited Magical Menagerie and in her arms was-

"You bought that monster!?" Ron yelled when he saw the tig…err… cat purring contently in Hermione's arms.

"He's gorgeous, isn't he?" Hermione said with a grin. "I was going to get an owl but I've always wanted a cat. The shop keeper said he's been in that store for years, he might be part kneazle."

"Hermione, that thing nearly scalped me!" Ron yelled again.

"He was going for Scabbers Ron," Harry said. "He's a cat, cats like to eat rats usually."

"That's even worse!" Ron said pointing a finger at Hermione's new pet. "Poor Scabbers is already stressed enough without having to worry about being eaten."

"Oh please Ron," Hermione said with a roll of her eyes. "That's a cat's instinct to hunt animals smaller than itself. I'll make sure Crookshanks doesn't eat Scabbers." Crookshanks was currently paying no attention to the quivering rat in Ron's breast pocket, instead he was staring down Jester who looked back, the cat almost seeming to… judge the puppet. After a few seconds Crookshanks looked away as if Jester wasn't something to concern himself with. Jester felt like he had just passed some sort of test.

"Well just keep that… that thing away from Scabbers," Ron said as he patted his shirt pocket where he could feel his pet trembling. Hermione rolled her eyes and turned away from Ron, who she thought was being very unreasonable.

"I should put Crookshanks in my room then Ron and I can finish our school shopping," she said. The boys agreed and followed Hermione around as they finished their shopping.

* * *

"Harry-dear, that is an interesting looking… doll?" Mrs. Weasley said that night as everyone met up in the Leaky Cauldron's dining room for supper. Jester was sitting on the back of Harry's chair, balanced on the thin back.

"He's a puppet Mrs. Weasley," Harry said. "I've picked him and some other puppets up this summer, as a bit of a hobby."

"I think he looks wicked," George said as he picked up Jester.

"Yeah, looks quite like a court jester," Fred agreed.

"Think he knows any good jokes Forge?" George asked jokingly. He nearly dropped Jester as the three separate parts of the puppet's head start to spin then came to a quick stop. "Blimey!"

"Neat trick that!" his twin agreed. "I wonder how that works. Maybe if we-" Harry rescued his puppet from the pranksters' grips.

"You are not taking him apart," he said as he placed Jester on the edge of the table beside him.

"Fred, George," Mrs. Weasley said in a warning tone.

"Sorry, we-"  
"Weren't going to take-"  
"it apart. We were-"  
"Just curious." The twins said finishing each other's sentences.

"I think it's time we all head up to bed, we have to leave early in the morning," Mrs. Weasley said. There was some grumbling from the Weasley brood but everyone got up and headed for the stairs. As Harry started to walk up them, he realized that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley weren't following them up. Stepping into the shadows with Jester and feeling another puppet brush against his leg, he looked down to see Six-Shooter with him this time, he listened in as the elder Weasley's talked about that Black guy.

By the end of the talk Harry was shaking his head a bit, this Black guy had thrown his lot in with Voldemort and had lost everything and now blamed Harry. That seemed to be the normal thing to do. But Harry didn't see why he should worry about Black, he doubted the man would ever come to Hogwarts with Dumbledore there plus he had the puppets. He didn't doubt their ability to keep him safe, not after what happened with that mugger.

Leaving the adults to talk, Harry walked up the stairs and headed to his room. He stopped by Hermione's room and knocked softly on the door.

"Hmm, Harry?" Hermione said opening the door. "Is something wrong?"

"Wrong? No, nothing is wrong. But I do need to speak to you," he said. "To show you something, so I need you to come by my room."

"Ohh… well I'll be there in a moment," Hermione said. Harry nodded and went down to his room, looking around at the puppets.

"I'm going to properly introduce you to my other friend now," he said. There were nods from around the room and the puppets climbed onto the desk just as someone knocked on the door. Harry wasn't surprised to see Hermione on the other side, as well as Crookshanks as the large orange cat slinked in and jumped onto the desk to sniff at the puppets.

"Crookshanks," Hermione said with a sigh but was smiling anyway as she entered Harry's room. "Oh… you have more of those puppet things?"

"Yeah, that's why I asked you to come in here," Harry said as he shut the door. "Hermione… I wasn't completely truthful in the alley about Jester being _just_ a puppet I bought."

"Alright, what is it then?" Hermione said, shivering a bit as she looked at the puppets. It was like they really were looking at her.

"Well the puppets, Jester and his friends here, they're alive," Harry said.

"Harry, just because they have some really good charms on them-" Hermione started to say but stopped as Harry shook his head.

"I'm not joking. These puppets really are alive. They used to be people but a man named Andre Toulon turned them into puppets after they died, during World War II," Harry explained. "These are Jester, whom you already met of course, Blade, Pinhead, Six Shooter, Tunneler, and Leech Woman. There is another one but I haven't figured out how to get it to wake up yet and Mr. Toulon didn't leave much information about it in his diary."

Hermione gasped as each puppet waved in greeting as they were introduced. They really were acting as if they were alive! She gulped just a little, she used to be afraid of dolls coming to life when she was really small, before she realized how silly that was but the fear itself never fully went away. On the desk Crookshanks appeared to find the puppets boring and curled up on the corner, grooming a paw. He deemed the puppets safe enough.

"Y-you said they have souls in them? Harry, are you sure they are safe to even have around?" She asked. "We should tell Mr. Weasley or somebody just in case-"

"Hermione," Harry said as he put his hand on her shoulder. "I thought of that too, I really did after what happened last year. So I contacted Professor Dumbledore. He came and checked on these guys himself."

"He… he did?" Hermione asked. She calmed down then and really looked at the puppets. They were… well most were pretty terrifying looking, like something you might see in a horror movie. One had a blade on one hand and a hook on the other with a bone white gaunt face. Another had a giant drill on its head for Merlin's sake! Another looked like an American cowboy but with six arms… well that wasn't as frightening as the other two she guessed. "Alright, tell me more."

Harry gave Hermione a quick rundown on how he found the puppets and showed her the book with Toulon's picture inside and about his life as a puppeteer. Wisely, he did not tell her about the outing or about his puppets murdering a man.

"So they come to life thanks to a potion?" Hermione said as she stood in front of the desk. She looked at the big muscle bound puppet with the small head, Pinhead she thought Harry called him. "Oh may I… umm… pick you up?" she felt silly for asking but gasped just a little as Pinhead nodded and came closer. "Remarkable," she whispered as she picked the puppet up. He was so light!

"I think it's a potion and spell," Harry said as he sat on his bed. "Toulon said that all of his puppets used to be friends of his that were murdered by Nazis. Leech Woman was his wife when she was still a person."

"I've never seen anything like this, and this man was a muggle?" Hermione said as she carefully turned Pinhead over in her hands. "These guys seem like something straight out of a movie… granted a horror movie but still."

"Yeah, I guess they do but they really are great. Professor Dumbledore called me a 'Puppet Master' and said these guys would protect me. They've been following me around the alley since I found them."

"No one's noticed them?" Hermione asked as she put Pinhead back down and picked up Blade next. She looked him over and nearly dropped him when spikes popped out of his eye sockets. "Oh!"

"I just say they are under an animation charm and everyone shrugs them off," Harry said with a shrug.

"Well… considering how everything runs on magic in the wizarding world, and I've looked into their toy stores most of their toys are under charms like that, it's a pretty good excuse," Hermione mused as she put Blade back down.

"Right," Harry agreed.

"Do you think this potion will work on anything?" Hermione asked. Harry tilted his head to the side thinking.

"I… don't think so. Not really, I think there's more to it than just the spell or the potion. I think a real soul has to be used too. Also, I don't think the potion is what Toulon used at first, look at this," Harry dug around in one of the compartments of his trunk and showed Hermione the scrap of paper he had found among Toulon's things. Hermione handled it carefully, unrolling it.

"Is this… Egyptian hieroglyphs?" Hermione asked. "This must be papyrus then. Is this why you are taking runes?"

"Yeah, I thought maybe I can learn to translate that one day," Harry said. "These aren't Toulon's first puppets, when he was younger he had other ones that he brought to life with a spell taught to him by an Egyptian wizard but his diary said he only got it to work on the first puppets. It was some other wizard from Egypt that taught him the elixir that worked the same way."

"Why try to learn the spell? Other than it being a fascinating find that is," Hermione said carefully rolling the papyrus back up. "You should really get a sealed box for that." Harry took out the box with the left over elixir inside.

"This isn't going to last, and I couldn't find anything in his things about how to make more," he said showing her the bottles. "He was keeping it secret, the Nazis really wanted this. I thought maybe if I can figure out the original spell, I could use that on the puppets so they didn't have to rely on the potion anymore."

"Hmm… I guess I can see that," Hermione mused then yawned. "I bet the library at school has something, so we can start there," she suggested through the yawn. "I'll be heading to bed, see you in the morning Harry. Come on Crookshanks."

"Night Hermione," Harry said watching the frizzy haired witch and her orange fuzz ball leave then locking the door behind her, letting out his own yawn. "Well, tomorrow we head to Hogwarts guys." He said to the puppets as he climbed into bed and doused the lights.

* * *

The next morning was a flurry of activity as the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione got ready to go to Hogwarts. Well… mostly the Weasleys. Hermione hadn't bothered unpacking since she arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, just putting her new school items into her trunk after she bought them, and Harry had already packed away his things before his friends had even showed up at Diagon Alley. He would have done it at the last minute except Leech Woman, who tended to mother Harry at times which was really weird coming from a living puppet the size and shape of a doll, had gotten Harry to do so ahead of time.

It was strange but the more Harry spent around the puppets the more he could understand them. Not truly understand them of course, other than the occasional sound the Puppets didn't speak. But Harry was starting to understand all the little sounds, the gestures, the way they spoke without speaking.

The only puppet Harry knew almost nothing about, had never spoken to, was the one that lay in the separate case. Harry had one day finally taken that puppet out of its case and had taken a good look at it. It wore a short leather black coat and black slacks with a brown turtle neck under the coat and black gloves. What he had assumed was a white featureless head had been a silver looking one instead with a very vague looking face shape on the front. The head had also came off he found and he had found two others inside of the case, one that looked like a robot head and the other some kind of weird device that you might see in an old sci-fi film. Both fit on the puppet's body.

Harry had tried to bring the puppet to life like the others but had been stopped by Pinhead and Blade. It had taken reading Toulon's diary to find out why. The puppet had been one Toulon had worked on but had never given a soul to, he had called the puppet Decapitron, Harry assumed the name came from the ability to switch the heads out on the puppet. The other puppets had stopped Harry from giving Decapitron any of the potion simply because it would be wasted on the soulless puppet. Yet…. For some reason the puppets seem almost… he didn't know… protective of the puppet. Why, he had no idea. He had even caught Leech Woman laying her hand on the side of Decapitron's head, almost like she was cradling someone's face, at one time. It was… a very strange action.

Currently Decapitron and the rest of the puppets were sitting in their compartment inside Harry's trunk. Harry and Hermione were downstairs listening to the Weasleys yell as they ran around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to pack in time to catch the Hogwarts Express. How or why the Weasley children had bothered unpacking their trunks that much when they were only staying _one night_ at the Leaky Cauldron was a mystery for the ages.

"Where's my rat tonic!?"

"Fred! George! I know you took my Head Boy badge!"

"Do you think we'll ever have a year where we'll get to the station on time?" Harry asked as he petted Hedwig through the bars of her cage.

"I don't know what you're talking about?" Hermione said. "I've made it to the station in plenty of time the last two years. But I know what you mean."

Finally after more screaming, yelling, and panic over lost items, they were ready to go. The Ministry of Magic sent over a couple of cars to drive all of them to King's Cross which Harry found a bit odd and chalked it up to being a celebrity and the whole thing with Sirius Black. It was a bit nice, certainly nicer than the Knight Bus, but it still annoyed Harry. Being famous for something that happened when he was a baby sucked, especially when he was convinced it was his mother Lily Potter who deserved the credit.

The cars were of course magical, not only did it hold the 7 Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, their luggage and their pets, but weaved in and around the heavy traffic with ease. But even with the cars, they just barely managed to make it to the train before it left. Before Harry boarded the blood red steam engine, Mr. Weasley grabbed Harry's arm.

"Might I have a quick word with you?" he said. Harry looked confused but followed the man a few feet away. "Now Harry… ummm… I'm sure you've been hearing all about Sirius Black."

"I… heard something, like he was Voldemort's right hand man," Harry said ignoring the flinch Mr. Weasley gave at the dark lord's name then admitted, "I heard you and Mrs. Weasley talking last night."

"Ahh… well… promise me you won't go looking for him," Mr. Weasley said. Harry looked at the older man like he was crazy.

"Why would I go looking for someone who wants to kill me?" He asked. Really? Why would Mr. Weasley even think that?

"Ohh… well good then," Mr. Weasley said. "Have a good year, stay safe. Go on now, don't want to miss the train." Harry shook his head slightly and climbed onto the Express.

"What was that about?" Hermione asked.

"I'll tell you later, let's just find a compartment," Harry said with a shake of his head.

As they had gotten to the station at the last minute, none of the teens were surprised to find that pretty much all the compartments on the train were either filled up or had students from other houses that they didn't get along with, like the Slytherins. At last, after several minutes of searching, Harry and his friends finally found a compartment that was empty… well for the most part.

Curled up on one of the seats next to the window was a man with shabby looking robes and tawny brown hair. He was slouched down, his head bowed in sleep, very soft snores escaping the man every now and then. As this was the emptiest compartment on the train, or at the very least they were tired of looking for one, the Golden Trio quietly entered the compartment and put their trunks up.

"Wonder who he is," Ron said in a low tone as they sat down.

"Professor Lupin must be our new defense professor," Hermione said. Ron gave her a confused look.

"How'd ya know his name?" he asked. Hermione rolled her brown eyes and pointed at the bag sitting at the man's feet that neither Harry nor Ron had noticed. Harry tilted his head to the side and noticed the letters 'R. J. Lupin' written in gold lettering on the side.

For the most part, the train ride was peaceful. The only real annoyance showed up in the form of Draco Malfoy and his seemingly brainless lackeys Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabb. Malfoy, Goyle and Crabb were all Slytherins and came from dark Pureblood families. To say Malfoy was spoiled was an understatement; Harry disliked him but would be content to ignore the blond if Malfoy would just leave him and his friends alone. Malfoy on the other hand seem to get some sort of kick out of riling up Harry whenever he could. And also Ron, but Ron was easy to rile up. Ron _hated_ Malfoy with a burning passion, just because the other boy was a Malfoy. Their families just flat out hated each other, for reasons Ron didn't know and didn't care.

Luckily for them, Malfoy decided that the Trio wasn't worth it once he found out that Lupin was going to be their new professor and left before he started any real trouble. It was later after the sun had set and they were closer to Hogsmeade when the real trouble started.

"Are we there already?" Ron asked as the train started slowing down.

"We can't be," Hermione said with a frown. "It's too early to be at Hogsmeade station." Harry leaned over and used his arm to wipe away the condensation that had built up on the window and looked outside. It was dark and he could barely see anything but he could just make out something moving in the darkness.

"I think someone is boarding the train," Harry said as he squinted. At that time the lights went out startling the teens and a few minutes later the door opened admitting Ron's younger sister Ginny and a boy named Neville Longbottom who was in the same house and year as the trio.

"Ron?"

"Ow! That's my foot!"

"Careful."

"Quiet," an unknown man's voice said and a light filled the compartment. Professor Lupin stood over the students with his wand lit up by a Lumos spell. "All of you stay here, I'm going to speak to the conductor."

What happened next was a blur, at least to Harry. The compartment door opened again and there stood a figure dressed in tattered robes… he didn't remember more than that other than thinking the cold he had been feeling the last few minutes was coming from this… this whatever it was and that someone was screaming as he blacked out.

* * *

As Harry slumped to the ground in a faint, the puppets sprang into action as they quickly climbed out of their trunk. Pinhead jumped on top of the Dementor and started to pummel it with his large fists. Blade and Tunneler jumped to the floor and started attacking the thing's legs, or what passed for legs anyway, with their respective weapons.

Six Shooter stood by Harry's head with Jester and Leech Woman crouching next to their master and withdrew all six of his guns, aiming the powerful little weapons at the Dementor. His bandanna came up and covered the lower part of his face as he let loose and shot the Dementor several times. The Dementor, who had no idea just what the hell was going on but decided that maybe it was time to leave, shook Pinhead off and quickly fled. This all seem to happen in a manner of seconds, before Remus Lupin could even get a spell out to force the Dementor away.

This must have been what Dumbledore had been speaking of when his old Headmaster had told him and the professors Harry had gotten a new, unusual form of protection.

"Bloody hell!" Ron yelped as he looked wide eyed at the puppets that had just attacked that… that… that whatever it was. Ron's voice shook Remus out of his stunned thoughts as he shifted into 'Professor' mode.

"Is everyone all right?" He asked as he reached into his bag and took out some Honeydukes chocolate and started breaking it into pieces. "Here, eat this. It will lessen the effects of the Dementor."

"T-that was a Dementor?" Ron asked as he took the chocolate.

"Ohhh," Harry said with a groan as he started to come around. Remus moved to kneel beside Harry then quickly stopped as Blade hissed and waved his knife at the man.

"It's alright, I'm not going to hurt him," Remus said feeling silly as he spoke to the unusual looking doll. "I'm his professor, I'm only trying to help him."

"Ron, what are those things?" Ginny hissed in fright as she clung to her brother. Blade continued to stare at Remus for a moment longer then finally lowered his blade arm and stepped back as Harry sat up, Pinhead helping the teen with his large strong hands.

"Here, eat this Mr. Potter," Remus said as he handed the piece of chocolate to Harry. Harry gave it a confused look then looked around.

"Who was screaming?" He asked. Ron and Hermione gave each other a confused look.

"No one was screaming Harry," Hermione told him. Harry frowned and shook his head.

"I heard a woman screaming," He said.

"Go ahead and eat your chocolate Mr. Potter, it will help," Remus said again, sighing softly in relief as Harry finally did. Harry sighed softly as the last of the chill in his body seem to drain away and finally noticed that all the puppets were out of the trunk and surrounding him, looking at him in what he thought was concern. "All of you stay here, I'm going to check on the other students and speak to the conductor."

"What happened?" Harry asked as soon as Remus left and had shut the door.

"We're not sure, as soon as that thing entered the compartment you just fell," Ron said. Harry frowned and rubbed his forehead.

"All I can remember is everything got really cold, I felt like I would never get warm again," he said. Around the compartment the others nodded in agreement to that statement. "Then I heard a woman scream. Did no one really scream? And what was that thing?"

"Professor Lupin called it a Dementor," Hermione said. "I've read about them, they guard Azkaban."

"They let those _things_ guard people?" Harry said in disbelief.

"Yes well… they feed on positive energy, that was why we all felt cold like they sucked the warmth right out of the air," Hermione said. "I believe it would leave the prisoners weak and unable to escape."

"Yeah, fat good that did," Ron muttered. "They didn't stop Black from escaping now did they?"

"What happened then?" Harry asked.

"Those… _things_ there just jumped out of nowhere and attacked the Dementor," Ginny said pointing at the puppets. The puppets gave various sounds, they were not _things_.

"She's right, they got out of your trunk and attacked the Dementor head on," Hermione agreed.

"It was kinda wicked," Ron said in admiration. Ginny looked at her brother in disbelief.

"Wicked?" She said then shook her head then looked at Harry again. "What are those things?"

"They're puppets I got this summer. Remember, I mentioned them at dinner last night, I even had Jester with me at the table," Harry said as he picked up Tunneler and made sure the puppet was undamaged. "Professor Dumbledore charmed them to be my bodyguards, you know since I keep getting into life threatening situations. Guess the charms worked if they chased away the Dementor." Harry was relieved when Ginny and Neville seem to buy his lie, he had to think of that one right on the spot.

"T-those must be really good charms," Neville said. He agreed that the puppets _were_ a little frightening looking, some more than others like that one with the drill on its head, but it had saved them. Of course their new professor might have saved them too if the puppets hadn't jumped in.

"Well of course they are," Hermione said as she quickly caught onto what Harry was saying. "They were put on by Professor Dumbledore."

"Huh?" Ron blinked then wheezed a bit as Hermione elbowed him. "Oh! Y-yeah, you know how great Dumbledore is at spells." Neville and Ginny didn't look _that _convinced but didn't question it as the train finally pulled into Hogsmeade station. Harry got his trunk down and let the puppet's back into their compartment, except Blade who insisted on staying out.

Leaving their things behind so the House Elves could take them up to the school, Harry followed his friends off the train. He could hear Hagrid, a giant of a man who was the groundskeeper and keeper of keys at Hogwarts and one of Harry's friends, calling for the first years down by the lake. Harry smiled slightly, he liked Hagrid a lot. The man had been the one to reintroduce him to the wizarding world and take him shopping his first year. Hagrid loved animals, especially dangerous ones though according to Hagrid they were just misunderstood.

As they approached the horseless carriages that would take them up to the school, Harry stopped and stared at the strange horse-like creatures at the front.

"What are those?" He asked wide eyed. Inside his robe where Blade was hidden the puppet squirmed so he could peek out and see as well. His mouth dropped open and the spikes in his eyes popped out when he saw the horse-things as well.

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked as she and Ron stopped. Ginny had left to ride with her friends on another carriage.

"Those, at the front of the carriage," Harry said pointing. Hermione and Ron looked confused as they glanced at the front of the carriage as well.

"Are you feeling alright Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, there isn't anything there," Ron agreed. Harry frowned, he knew he wasn't going crazy, and walked over to the horse-like creature. It looked like an almost skeletal horse with its skin pulled really tight over the bones, an almost lizard-like face and two large leathery bat-like wings on its back. Harry took a deep breath and reached out, placing his hand against the side of the demonish looking horse. It snorted, very horse-like, and turned its head but didn't do anything like bite Harry for touching it.

"There is a horse here with bat wings," Harry said very calmly. "I am currently touching it." Hermione and Ron still looked worried while Neville watched Harry with wide eyes, like the Boy-Who-Lived he could see the creatures as well. Hermione walked over and stuck her hand out, yelping as her hand smacked into something that felt leathery and cool to the touch. The horse-thing made a sound that sounded like a cross between a neigh and bird screech and shifted, its snout touching the back of Hermione's hand.

"Oh god!" Hermione said as she snatched her hand back. "There really is something there!"

"Really?" Ron said as he reached out as well, his eyes wide as his fingers met something solid. "Bloody hell, what is it?"

"I don't know, you think they've always been pulling the carriages?" Harry asked as he started petting the invisible to everyone but him horse, despite its downright monstrous appearance it seemed really calm and dare he say sweet. "These things look like something Hagrid would like."

"Oh!" Hermione said. "I bet he does know. We'll have to ask him first chance we get but the other carriages are starting to leave." Harry gave the horse thing one last pat then quickly climbed into the carriage with Ron, Hermione and Neville.

* * *

Later that night Harry groaned as he collapsed into his bed. He was so happy to be back at Hogwarts he just hoped that for once he would have a normal year. His bed curtains were closed and spelled to be silent, as loud as Ron snored everyone had quickly learned the Silencing spell just so they could get some sleep.

"Some day, huh," Harry said to Blade, the puppet next to him on the bed. Blade had stayed with him throughout the whole welcoming feast, hidden under the table. The ride up to the school had been fine, for the most part anyway. When they had passed the school gates more of those Dementor things had been outside and Harry had heard the woman screaming again but he hadn't fainted this time. Blade had stuck himself out the window of the carriage and hissed at the Dementor, threatening it with his knife. As soon as they entered the school he had been called away to be checked over by the school nurse Madame Pomfrey as Professor Lupin had told her he had fainted on the train. He had barely gotten out of staying the night in the hospital wing.

The fact he had blacked out had gotten around already as Malfoy had made fun of him as soon as the stuck up blond saw him. It didn't surprise him of course, Malfoy wouldn't let any chance to make fun of Harry pass up.

The welcoming feast had brought the usual announcements, stay out of the Forbidden Forest, no magic in the hallways, new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher aka Professors Lupin. Everyone had caught on right away that Snape _hated_ Lupin, Harry would say the potions professor hated Lupin almost as much as he hated Harry. Harry wondered what the story behind that was.

Another surprising announcement, one Harry wasn't sure how he felt about, was that Hagrid was the new Care for Magical Creatures professor… Harry liked Hagrid and Merlin knows the man knew his animals but Harry wasn't sure if he was teacher material. Guess he would find out soon.

The worse news had been that the Dementors would be guarding the school all year and that no one could trick the horrible things. Harry had caught on pretty quick that they would be able to see through the cloak, or sense Harry under it, when Dumbledore had given Harry a pointed look.

Harry looked up as he felt the bed shift slightly as the rest of the puppets climbed up onto the bed and smiled slightly.

"What do you think of the castle so far?" he asked. The puppets made various sounds that to Harry sounded pleased. "Yes, it's great. I love it here, this is more my home than Privet Drive will ever be." The puppets had only seen the room Harry slept in so far and had peeked in at the common room. There were an awful lot of red and gold colors everywhere but it didn't take away from the coziness of the tower. Harry yawned and took off his glasses to rub his face then climbed off the bed to redress in his sleep clothes, the comfy PJs he had picked up during the summer. "Night guys," he said as he put his glasses on the nightstand and curled up under the covers.

Once Harry was asleep the puppets quietly exited the bed curtains and snuck out of the room. By now the common room was empty, all the students in their dorms as curfew came and went, tired from their journey and from the experience with the Dementors.

_What were those things?_ Jester asked as soon as they were all alone.

_Everyone calls them 'Dementors',_ Blade said.

_Looks like some crazy wannabe grim reaper thing,_ Six-Shooter said. _It was like it was hardly fazed when we attacked it._

_Well it had to feel something, it ran off pretty quick,_ Jester pointed out.

_I don't think it expected to be attacked, _Blade said then noticed that Leech Woman was staring into the fire. _Something wrong Leech Woman?_ The other puppets turned to the only lady Puppet of the group.

_Didn't anyone else… well…_ Leech Woman grasped around for words. _It was like memories from my human life had come to life in my head, memories I had almost forgotten after being a puppet for so long. _The other puppets thought about that for a moment.

_You know, I think I did,_ Tunneler said after a moment. _Just for a moment but I was able to push them back. They were hazy but there. _

_Yeah like those robed guys dragged up the memories,_ Pinhead said. Thinking back on it each of Toulon's puppets realized they had all felt that. Memories, hazy ones, had popped into their heads but they had been pushed away almost as soon as they came. Thinking on it Blade had felt the same sensation when they passed the Dementors at the gate but it had been fleeting.

_Those Dementors bring up memories,_ He said tapping his hook against his jaw. _If I think on them…. It was when I was shot and killed._

_I see my death also, but I also got flashes of those creatures that had been after Toulon and his first puppets,_ Leech Woman said. _The ones that looked human but were dead, like giant puppets themselves. And when I burned in the fireplace._

_Yeah, when I died also came into my head,_ Pinhead said. The other puppets agreed, each had remembered that horrible moment when they were murdered or when something horrible had happened to them as puppets.

_Wait, so they bring back bad memories?_ Tunneler asked.

_Not just bad memories but our worst ones,_ Blade concluded. _We need to find out more about those things if we're going to protect Harry. You saw how he reacted to them._

_Yeah, wondered what the kid saw to make him blackout like that,_ Pinhead said.

_We need to start exploring the castle, this place is much larger than the hotel was,_ Blade said changing the subject.

_Tunneler and I can start on this floor,_ Jester said with Tunneler nodding in agreement. The puppets agreed and broke up their little meeting. Tunneler and Jester found the exit that the students' cats used to get in and out of the common room while Leech Woman and Six-Shooter stayed to explore the common room and the rest of the tower. Pinhead and Blade went back up to watch over Harry. Now that he was safely back at school, neither puppet thought Harry was in too much danger but old habits die hard.

* * *

Harry yawned as he took his timetable for the year from Professor McGonagall. His sleep last night had been on the restless side, whatever memory the Dementors had dragged up it had leaked over into his dreams. He couldn't remember fully what the dreams had been about but he knew whatever it was it was horrible.

The teen noticed that Monday, Thursday and Friday seemed to be his busiest days of the week with Tuesday and Wednesday with the smallest amount of classes.

"Hermione," Harry heard Ron say, looking up to see his red headed friend frowning as he looked over Hermione's shoulder, "they've messed up your schedule. Look - they've got you down for about ten subjects a day. There isn't enough time."

"I'll manage. I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall," Hermione said with no concern.

"But look," said Ron, laughing, "see this morning? Nine o'clock, Divination. And underneath, nine o'clock, Muggle Studies. And," Ron leaned closer to the schedule, disbelieving, "look - underneath that, Arithmancy, nine o'clock. I mean, I know you're good Hermione, but no one's that good. How're you supposed to be in three classes at once?"

"Don't be silly," said Hermione shortly, "of course I wouldn't be in three classes at once. It's just a typo." Harry blinked and remembered that Hermione and McGonagall had spoke in their Head of House's office before he and Hermione had gone to the feast. "Come on, we need to leave if we're going to get to Divination on time." She stood up and grabbed her school bag. Ron grumbled and stuffed one last sausage in his mouth as he stood to follow. Harry grinned to himself, since he had dropped out of Divination for Ancient Runes he had a free period this morning.

"I'll see you guys in Transfiguration then," he said.

"You won't get into trouble will you Harry?" Hermione asked. Harry gave her an innocent 'who me' look before laughing.

"I'll be fine Hermione, I'm thinking of visiting Hagrid this morning if he doesn't have a class," Harry assured her. "Or go to the library." Hermione smiled and nodded her head.

"Make sure to check over your summer homework then," she said. "Come on Ron." Harry watched as Ron and Hermione, and several of his other housemates, got up to follow. It was nice not to rush off to class this early in the morning and Harry took the time to enjoy finishing his breakfast before standing and heading toward the front doors. He faintly heard the tap-tap-tap of one of the puppets following him through the mostly empty hallways.

Once out of the school and far enough away from the doors that he wouldn't be seen, Harry picked up Pinhead and carried the strong puppet with him down to Hagrid's hut. The giant of a man was sitting on the stool in front of his hut whittling away on a piece of wood.

"'Morning 'Arry!" Hagrid said in a booming voice and a smile was seen in the man's bushy beard. "Shouldn't you be in class?" Fang, Hagrid's boarhound, or as it was more commonly known a great dane, barked happily and came over to greet Harry with slobbery licks. (1)

"I don't have any first period classes this morning," Harry said as he pushed Fang back. "I'm not disturbing you am I? Are you starting your classes yet?" Hagrid chuckled and offered Harry a handkerchief to clean off, then stood up after putting his knife and the wood he had been working on away. Pinhead gave a small grunt of surprise as he took in how tall Hagrid was.

"Your class will be me first lesson," Hagrid said. "Come on inside, I'll make us a pot of tea." Harry followed his large friend inside and climbed onto one of the large chairs at the table. "So where are Her'onie and Ron?"

"They both had Divination this morning," Harry said putting Pinhead on the table. "I did at first too, but I dropped it in favor for Ancient Runes instead."

"Divination is rubbish anyway," Hagrid said as he put a plate of rock cakes on the table and looked curiously at Pinhead. "If you don't go' the gift of sight, that class isn't goin' to do you much good. Mind if I take a closer look at this?" He pointed at the puppet.

"Oh… sure I guess," Harry said. He knew Hagrid could be really gentle despite his size and watched as the giant of a man carefully picked Pinhead up and looked at the puppet under the lamp light.

"Very good carvin' detail," Hagrid said. "Whoever made this fella was good at working with wood."

"His name was Andre Toulon," Harry said. "A book I found with him in it said he made all his own puppets." Hagrid nodded and handed Harry Pinhead back. "Hagrid, there was something I did want to ask you."

"What about 'Arry?" Hagrid asked as he poured both of them tea. Harry took the normal sized cup and doctored the tea with a bit of cream and sugar. Hagrid's rock cakes sucked but the man could make a damn good cup of tea.

"Last night when we were boarding the carriages," Harry said after he took a sip. "I saw… well I saw this horse looking animal at the front but no one else could." Hagrid's warm black eyes filled with sorrow and surprise.

"You could see the Thestrals?" the half giant asked.

"Thestrals?" Harry repeated.

"Tha's what's pulls the carriages every year," Hagrid said with a nod of his head. He stood and motioned for Harry to follow him. Curious, Harry put his tea down and picked up Pinhead, following his large friend out. Hagrid lead him down a path into the forest, stopping to grab a bucket of what looked like dead animals at the edge of the tree line. After a few minutes they came out in a section of woods that was plunged deeply into shadows by the trees. Harry gasped as he saw several of the Thestrals walking around.

"Wow," Harry said with wide green eyes. Pinhead made a soft sound of agreement.

"These are the Thestrals," Hagrid said. He picked up one of the carcasses out of the bucket and tossed it into the air toward one of the nearby beasties. It let out a very bird-like screech, if it was made by a monster of a bird that is, and snatch the treat out of the hair. "Beautiful, aren't they."

"Yeah…" Harry said and in a weird way they really were. He could see more of their appearance here in the low light. The Threstle came closer sniffing at the bucket.

"Away with ya," Hagrid said with a laugh as he pushed the Threstle's head away. "This is for the rest of 'em." The Threstle snorted then turned to Harry, sniffing at his legs and boots. "You can pet 'im 'Arry. This lot is tame, the only tame 'erd here in this part of the world."

"Tame?" Harry repeated as he reached up with his free hand to pet the Threstle. It made a noise that was a cross between a horse's wicker and a bird's trill.

"Aye, Thestrals in the wild aren't anywhere near this calm," Hagrid said as he started to feed the others in the herd. "They're carnivorous by nature, like the smell of blood you see. Dead clever too."

Harry looked into the Threstle's eyes and agreed with Hagrid, he could see the cleverness there.

"So they're dangerous?" Harry asked that seemed right up Hagrid's alley.

"Misunderstood," Hagrid responded. "People think they are 'ill omens', rubbish I say. They're some of the most loya' creatures in the world. As long as they're kept fed they're quite calm."

"So… why can I see them but my friends can't?" Harry asked biting back laughter as the Threstle started to nose Pinhead the puppet not looking amused at all. Hagrid looked a bit sad as he tossed out the last of the dead animals to the herd.

"Only a person who's seen death, and understand what it means, can see them," he said giving Harry a sorrowful look. "I won't ask ya who you saw die, that's personal and all. But it's why you can see these beasties."

Harry was so very grateful to Hagrid that the man wasn't going to pursue the issue, he really didn't want to have to come up with some sort of lie on where he saw a person die since he wasn't about to tell anyone about watching some of his puppet friends murder a man.

"I see," Harry said as he gave the Threstle one last pat on the nose. "Thanks for telling me Hagrid, I thought I was going mad there at first when I saw one of them pulling the carriage."

"Think nothing of it," Hagrid said. "Come on, firs' period is almost o'er, you should get back to th' school and get ready for yer next class. The Thestrals seem to like you so you can visit them again."

"Thanks Hagrid," Harry said as he walked with the giant man back out of the forest. Once back at Hagrid's hut, Harry turned and faced the man. "Thanks for showing me the Thestrals Hagrid. I think you're going to be a great Professor… just…"

"What is it 'Arry?" Hagrid asked. Harry rubbed the back of his neck.

"Just remember that sometimes what's safe for you isn't always safe for anyone else. You're great with animals but…" Harry said feeling that maybe he should give his friend some sort of warning before trying his hand at teaching. "Just remember that sometimes it's better to be safe than sorry. I wouldn't want you to mess up your big chance at showing everyone what you know. We're just kids after all. See you this afternoon." Harry waved over his shoulder and headed back to the school. Hagrid was almost sure that the puppet waved at him as well.

"Hmm…" he said rubbing his chin and looked down at Fang. "Think that maybe introducing my who'e class to a herd of hippogriffs is too much?" Fang barked and wagged his tail happily, drool dipping from his mouth. "Yer right, maybe I should ask for advice. Good thing I can contact Kettleborn, he did say to floo him if I had any questions." Hagrid smiled happily and headed up to the castle to use one of the floos to talk to the last care of magical creatures professor.

* * *

(1) I was looking up just what a Boarhound was and turns out it's another name for a Great Dane. So Fang is really a Great Dane, though he was portrayed by a Neapolitan Mastiff in the movies.

Author note 10-12-16: Fixed a few errors that was missed and corrected the name of the horses. Also I thought I put this out there, if anyone wants to read the Puppet Master comics just search read comics online in a search bar and it should be the first website that pops up. Then just search Puppet Master on the website.


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